Malaysia is the only country in the world where the longer a lockdown is enforced, the more Covid-19 cases there are, former prime minister Najib Razak said today.
He said all the country has to show for more than three months of lockdown are more coronavirus cases and more deaths from infection.
“Today marks three months (92) days since Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the third half-baked movement control order. Prior to this, we had the half-baked MCO 2.0 for 51 days,” he wrote on Facebook today.
“Malaysia has implemented the longest lockdown in the world, and it is also the only country where despite the lockdowns, Covid-19 cases have consistently gone up.
“What science and data is the government consulting?”
The Pekan lawmaker said the country has been in lockdown for 143 of the 222 days of the year so far.
“We are now ahead of Fiji, Cuba, Botswana, Georgia and Cyprus in terms of number of deaths per one million people.”
Since the start of the pandemic last year, the government has enforced three lockdowns to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
From January 11 to August 1, the country was in a state of emergency for the same purpose.
Yet the situation has not improved.
New cases have consistently trended in the five figures, registering 19,991 yesterday.
On Sunday, Malaysia reported a record 360 deaths. Daily fatalities have been in the hundreds while the death toll stands at 11,162.
Most states are in phase 1 of the national recovery plan, where only essential sectors are allowed to open and social activities are barred.
Perak, Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang have transitioned to phase 2, while Perlis, Sarawak and Labuan are in phase 3.
Over the weekend, Muhyiddin announced that fully vaccinated people in phase 2 states may now dine out, travel inter-district, take local tours, and participate in selected sports.
Health experts, however, have said that it was unwise to lift curbs for the fully vaccinated while daily cases and hospital occupancy remain high. – TMI