JANUARY 12 — The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) wishes to thank His Majesty Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah for declaring a national state of Emergency to bring the Covid-19 situation in the country under control.
We also support the government’s decision to implement the second MCO in six states — most affected by the surge in cases of Covid-19, the CMCO in six other states and the RMCO in Perlis and Sarawak. MMA will provide support in any way it can to assist the Health Ministry and the government manage the Covid-19 situation in the country. We urge the public to give their full support by fully adhering to the MCO’s SOPs that will be announced this evening.
A second MCO is indeed necessary as cases of Covid-19 have been consistently on the rise with no sign of improvement. There is also spread in the community and the infection rate has not come down from the current RO of between 1.1 and 1.2. There is also concern over the B117 Covid-19 strain known as the UK strain that has been detected in the country.
All public hospitals in the country are overwhelmed with cases of Covid-19 and healthcare workers are under intense pressure. Urgent steps to address manpower issues in our public healthcare must be taken to ensure the standard of care will be maintained.
We also urge the Health Ministry to work with private healthcare as the increasing patient load of Covid-19 cases at government hospitals may also affect the system and management of non-Covid-19 patients. The outsourcing of healthcare services such as Non Communicable Disease (NCD) management to GPs and cancer treatment to private hospitals will allow public hospitals to focus its resources on managing Covid-19.
We wish to once again remind the public on the importance of preventive measures against Covid-19. With full compliance to the SOPs, we can break the chain of infections and flatten the curve. If we are committed to this, the country will recover from the pandemic sooner rather than later.
To defeat Covid-19 and bring the pandemic to an end, it requires the cooperation and effort of all. The whole country can be made to pay a heavy price if just one person lets their guard down.
The fight against Covid-19 is a collective responsibility. Going forward, MMA hopes the government will adopt a whole of society and whole of nation approach in managing the pandemic.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
