Coronavirus - 'hurting' SMEs want a stop to unverified news

The Small and Medium Enterprises Association (Samenta), whose members are facing a slowdown in business due to concerns about the novel coronavirus outbreak, have urged Malaysians to rely on expert opinion instead of unverified news.

"We call on fellow Malaysians not to spread unverified news on the virus.

"We should adopt an evidence-based approach to handling the situation and defer to the experts in the Health Ministry and the World Health Organisation for directions," it said in a statement today.

Samenta policy and government relations committee chairperson William Ng said it was also advising its members to be vigilant and not resort to panic.

"We advise all members to remain vigilant and to educate all employees on the right preventive measures to minimise risk without resorting to panic or over-reaction," he said.

He noted that the coronavirus outbreak, which to date has claimed more than 700 lives, most of them in China, has impacted business.

"Many of our members have reported a slowdown in business, particularly those in the retail, tourism and distributive trades.

"We are monitoring the situation closely and are in touch with various government agencies to identify issues that may crop up and to find ways to mitigate the impact on members," he said.

Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng have said the government plans to introduce a stimulus package to shore up the slowing economy caused by the global epidemic but will first consult stakeholders.

No deaths have been reported in Malaysia to date but there have been 16 reported cases. All incidents were "imported cases" except one which was a local human-to-human transmission by a Malaysian man who returned from a business meeting in Singapore.

The Health Ministry has tracked down all 69 persons the man - referred to as "Case 9" - had contact with and they all tested negative except for his sister who tested positive and was isolated.

At an estimated fatality rate of two percent, the novel coronavirus is less deadly than the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) which infected 8,098 people and killed 774 people in 17 countries between 2002 and 2003, representing a fatality rate of around 9.6 percent.

However, the novel coronavirus which first began to spread in Wuhan, China is more infectious than Sars.

To date, the novel coronavirus has infected 34,915 people with 724 deaths.