Yoursay: Leadership from religious authorities severely needed

YOURSAY | 'Viruses do not recognise the colour of our skins, nor our faiths…'

M'sia records 190 new Covid-19 cases in a day, total now at 428

Kawak: Brothers and sisters, it is going to very gloomy going forward. In the next few days and weeks, we are going to see a drastic climb in Covid-19 cases.

The Sri Petaling mosque cluster is devastating. The transmitting rate is said to be one infected person to another three persons. The government is still not prepared for it. They still allow Friday prayers. There should be already a plan for some lockdown measures.

Anonymous_1967: The authorities that approved this religious gathering of 16,000 participants amid the Covid-19 outbreak should be held responsible for this worsening outbreak.

The 190 new cases in one day are only the tip of the iceberg. Thousands of participants have gone back to every crook and cranny of Malaysia and some of them, due to stigma and fear, may not even want to contact the authorities.

Anonymous 23961448716158: On Feb 27, Saudi Arabia suspended the entrance of pilgrims for umrah activity and visiting the Prophet’s Mosque as proactive preventive measures to prevent the arrival of Covid-19 to the kingdom.

And on that same day, here in Malaysia, we allowed a tabligh gathering of 16,000 people... and now with dire consequences.

Vijay47: In the earlier stages of this infection, I was naturally very relieved over the small number of cases; similarly, I was impressed with the health authorities for keeping a lid on exposure.

But suddenly all hell seems to be breaking loose and we have exploded from 99 to 428 in just one week. What went wrong? Was Covid-19 a silent timebomb that has burst?

This is not the moment to make accusations but I am now not so sure that the Health Ministry had been on the ball.

I was recently in India and was stunned to see the response there – despite having far fewer cases, it was battle stations from the word ‘go’. Even before we had left the aerobridge, everyone, Indian or foreigner, was put into intense checks with temperatures taken and having to fill two forms, mainly to trace us, if any fellow passenger had fallen ill.

When we landed in KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) on Friday, March 13, there was no indication whatsoever that the country was facing a major health onslaught - a visitor would have thought we were having a summer holiday.

At no time did we have to undergo any medical examination. Thermal readers? I did not see any. I simply had a pleasant chat with Immigration (the auto-gates had been closed) and was soon on our way home.

All this while, I had been relaxed while taking the necessary precautions – my wife makes sure of that every other minute. I have not yet hit the panic button but now with a potential 15,000 carriers walking around, I am getting worried, really worried.

Teh Tarik: It appears that we are in the same trajectory as Italy. At this rate of doubling, we will have thousands of cases within the next two weeks.

Very frightening indeed. It would be interesting to know how many ICU (intensive care unit) beds and ventilators there are in the country. The Health Ministry should give us these figures.

Here are some suggestions on what the authorities should do:

1. Ban all meetings, conventions, trade shows and gatherings, including religious ones, with immediate effect. All places of worship should be closed to mass prayers. Many Gulf states have imposed this;

2. Close all schools;

3. Educate the public on social distancing;

4. Cancel all elective surgery in government hospitals;

5. Convert normal wards in government hospitals to ICUs and quarantine centres for Covid-19 cases or alternatively, mandatory home quarantine for non-serious cases with GPS tracking to ensure that this is strictly adhered to (like in China and South Korea);

6. Rope in the private sector to help with non-Covid-19 medical emergencies;

7. Ensure that all those who are quarantined and are not salaried, receive a minimum two-week payslip from the government;

8. Make it mandatory that all public places like malls, bus and MRT/LRT stations, have hand disinfectants at all entrances and exits;

9. If the cases continue to jump to the tens of thousands, then we might have to take the drastic measure of quarantining the whole population and closing all public transport, like in some European countries; and

10. Request for urgent assistance and resources (like ventilators) from China as they have vast experience and resources in the fight against Covid-19.

I hope Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and the new government wakes up to the potential gravity of the situation. It is obvious that in many countries the number of cases will grow exponentially - unless drastic measures are enforced.

The window of opportunity is fast closing.

Vela: Well said, Teh Tarik. But I think we should be doing No 9 (complete lockdown) once we hit 1,000 cases. Or at least lockdown Kuala Lumpur and Selangor because the coming school holidays will see a lot of domestic travel.

They should now allocate certain responsibilities to the private sector to take some of the burdens away from public hospitals.

Idiocracy: Now this is getting catastrophic. Imagine the Sri Petaling tabligh participants who went about spreading the virus to the other mosques last Friday, when the imams were still scratching their heads whether to stop mosque gatherings.

Anonymous 93887546720228: It is times like this that we really need leadership from our religious authorities. They will need to urge those who attended the tabligh event to come forward and be tested.

There is another brewing problem - our high number of foreign workers. If they had attended Friday prayers and be infected, it would be very hard to trace them. Especially if they are illegal.

We are sitting on a ticking timebomb...

Anak JB: Viruses do not recognise the colours of our skins, nor our faiths and nor do they discriminate based on our political affiliations.

Anyone trying to put a religious or political spin or defending mass gatherings for prayers need to see the rationale behind such advice to avoid the gatherings.

Many clusters, especially in Iran, South Korea, Italy and Singapore, have been due to religious gatherings and people in close proximity.

I hope sensibility will prevail and the religious authorities should stop mass gatherings in the interim.

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