Malaysia's latest lockdown marred by lack of testing and rule compliance, says medical association chief

Kuala Lumpur

MALAYSIA'S latest Covid-19 lockdown period has helped lower the number of infections and taken some pressure off the overworked healthcare system, but its effectiveness has been limited by missteps and shortcomings, the president of the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has said.

Subramaniam Muniandy remarked that, compared to the first Movement Control Order (MCO) last year, MCO 2.0 is considered far less restrictive, in that people have been still allowed to go to work.

However, he said, there is still a risk of infections spreading into the community.

"This MCO was effective to the extent that the infection rate was reduced to below 1.0 in most states.

"However, the MMA feels we are not testing enough to know if we have truly managed to control community transmissions," he told The Business Times.

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Malaysia's second MCO began on Jan 13, covering almost the entire country. It was to have ended on Thursday, but has since been extended till March 4 in places like Kuala Lumpur and Johor.

Still, some restrictions were lifted from Friday; more people are now allowed to dine out together or be in the same vehicle.

Malaysia reported 2,936 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, raising the total number of confirmed infections to 277,811.

The number of new infections has been falling in recent days, but fatalities surpassed the four-digit mark this week, with 1,043 deaths recorded as at Friday.

Dr Subramaniam said: "The Ministry of Health's earlier policy was to test all close contacts but we are not doing so now. The MMA had suggested that the ministry conduct community testing using the RTK (rapid test kit) antigen, but this has not been being done."

While Malaysia had earlier success in containing the spread of the disease, the number of new infections started rising when a state election was held in Sabah late September. Campaigning politicians have been being blamed as the catalysts.

Dissatisfaction has been rising among ordinary Malaysians with the way the government has handled the healthcare crisis, with officials frequently flip-flopping on standard operating procedures (SOPs).

People are also upset by the government's move to exempt Cabinet ministers returning from official visits abroad from the full 10-day mandatory quarantine.

MCO 2.0 was imposed when the number of new Covid-19 cases soared into the thousands on average in the last few months, hitting a peak of 4,571 on Feb 4. The daily average had been under 300 last October.

Dr Subramaniam attributed the high numbers to a lack of compliance with SOPs.

"This has been an area we have struggled with. But we are also not testing enough.

"The government should rope in the 7,000 Ministry of Health-trained private general practitioners across the country to test the community. We are also still far behind in the mandatory testing of foreign workers."

The lockdown has taken a toll on the economic recovery. Malaysia's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 5.6 per cent in 2020, worse than the Ministry of Finance's earlier projection of a 4.5 per cent decline in the Economic Outlook 2021 report released in November.

Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said: "There are mixed views as to the efficacy of the latest MCO.

"What is clear is the economy has continued to suffer, with primarily small and medium-sized businesses having to close shop or scale down, resulting in mounting unemployment.

"Compared to some neighbouring or many other developing countries, the vaccination programme could have been rolled out much earlier."

Malaysia, set to receive its first batch of vaccines on Sunday, will begin the inoculation process on Feb 26.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will take the lead and get his shot that day, along with several frontliners.

The National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme that is scheduled to stretch to February 2022.