LETTER | Covid-19: An urgent solution is needed

LETTER | Frequent water cuts, especially in the Klang Valley, and the extensive conditional movement control order (CMCO) seem to dominate, dictate and devastate some of our lives these days.

Without water and with no possibility to travel beyond one’s own district (because of travel restrictions) to have a shower, what is one required to do?

What kind of personal hygiene, with the required regular washing of one's hands, can anyone observe?

The Academy of Medicine of Malaysia in a statement on Nov 10 came out with sound statistics to demonstrate that the blanket CMCO for most of the country is somewhat excessive. It is, in fact, counterproductive, based on their reasoning. We have to accept their well-intentioned opinion.

We seem to be managing a pandemic not so much with professional medical and health personnel and common sense than with the deployment of police personnel.

While the work of our medical and health establishment has to be acknowledged and appreciated, perhaps we need to think outside of the box.

The worst affected areas seem to be Sabah and Johor. Sabah is hard hit by the high number of Covid-19 cases since their state elections on Sept 26. Our medical and health authorities, in close cooperation with welfare officials and community leaders, must work to address not only the Covid-19 issue but also the availability and distribution of food in Sabah.

The problem of poverty should not be allowed to make the Covid-19 issue any worse.

Johor has suffered greatly for seven months from the virtual cutoff of Singapore. Our medical and health authorities ought to devise a targeted plan to eliminate, or at least considerably lessen, the incidence of Covid-19 cases in Johor.

On securing a much-reduced incidence of Covid-19 or its elimination in Johor, we will be in a good position to negotiate a safe green corridor for commuters to and from Singapore. This would enable several hundred thousand residents of that state to benefit from resuming work, travel and also promote some tourism.

Strict measures on movement control, needless to say, have to be enforced to enable most of southern Johor to recover and register an improvement in the Covid-19 situation.

Close cooperation between the federal government and the Johor state authorities has to be maintained towards achieving this objective.

With the implementation of these measures, Malaysia will, hopefully, be able to recover gradually from this rather prolonged pandemic.

M SANTHANANABAN is a retired ambassador, with 45 years of public sector experience.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.