Malaysia Healthcare Chronicles
Malaysia vs COVID-19: #Juststayathome
“Just stay at home” quickly became a nation-wide buzz-phrase on 18th March 2020, now a historically significant date for the people of Malaysia. 18th March 2020 saw the beginning of gradual shutdowns for international travel and halting of all non-essential businesses nation-wide.
Leading up to this day, Malaysia had managed to contain the spread of COVID-19. After the first wave of COVID-19 began on 25th January 2020, the curve eventually flattened for 10 days from 17th to 26th February 2020, reporting no new cases. All 22 recorded cases also experienced complete recovery; both locals and foreign nationals.
On 27th February, we began to see a rise in new cases – 14 within the next 7 days, followed by 93 in the following week. Between 11th to 17th March 2020, Malaysia recorded a 485% jump to a total of 544 new cases. Unfortunately, we also reported the first two cases of death due to COVID-19 that day.
This despairing news was then followed by the announcement of the Movement Control Order by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Yang Amat Berhormat Tan Sri Muhyiddin bin Haji Mohd Yasin. The nation of Malaysia was ordered by the premier to just stay at home, a necessary measure to break the circuit of spreading COVID-19 further among the people.
The practice of social distancing now becomes vital to monitor, assess and most importantly, stop the spread of the pandemic.
Until further notice, the best thing all of us could do is #juststayathome.
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