Since the implementation of the second Movement Control Order (MCO) on January 13th, the number of new daily COVID-19 cases seems to have spiked instead of reduced as you’d think it would.
Yesterday (January 24th), Malaysia reported 3,346 new cases, after posting a new record-high of 4,275 cases on Saturday (January 23rd), and the new daily numbers seem to be lingering around this range, in spite of this MCO 2.0.
Over the past couple of days, the Health Ministry (MOH) has expressed one particular area of concern in regards to these numbers, and that is a surge in new clusters related to workplaces.
Eight of the nine new COVID-19 clusters detected yesterday were such clusters - six of them were detected in the peninsular, of which two were in Johor and one each in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.
The remaining clusters are in Sabah, namely the Ladang Segama and Jalan Segama clusters.
During his daily press briefing on Saturday, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah revealed that a total of 350 new clusters were reported between January 6th and January 22nd, of which 225 or 64.3% were linked to workplaces.
He urged all employers and their employees to work hand in hand in assisting the ministry to contain the transmission of the virus at workplaces by always adhering to SOPs.
More importantly, he added employers need to provide conducive residential areas for their employees and ensure that they always practise infection prevention measures including temperature and symptoms checks prior to entering their workplaces.
Rumour has it that the government is preparing to shut down most economic sectors if cases continue to surge, as current restrictions have so far failed to contain the spread of the virus, and thus, we are nowhere near back to flattening the curve.
However, there is no official confirmation on the matter as of yet.
Stay home and stay safe, everyone!
by Kyle Roshen Jacob
