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The total number of deaths from Covid-19 in Malaysia was 494 yesterday, while the total number of cases amounted to 119,077. Only yesterday there were 11 deaths.
On October 2, three months ago, the death toll was 136 and the total number of cases was 11,771.
Naturally, people are alarmed by this sharp increase in cases.
The current increase in infections mainly affects migrant workers. For the past few weeks, Malaysians have been reading about the miserable and overcrowded living conditions of migrant factory workers. We’ve also been reading about the sudden fervor among government agencies to raid factories.
I know that it is difficult to predict where and when the disease will spread, especially since some of those infected may be asymptomatic. I appreciate the fact that the health department and medical staff are doing their best. I also understand that this is something new that all governments are dealing with.
However, I cannot understand how and why the increase in cases among migrant workers was allowed to occur.
I use the word “allowed” deliberately.
This is because Putrajaya should have been vigilant and took steps to prevent the spread of the disease among migrant factory workers in April.
That’s when our neighbor Singapore reported a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases among its migrant workers. Tight living conditions in workers’ dormitories accelerated the spread of the disease in Singapore.
Metalic sound! Metalic sound! Metalic sound! That should have raised the alarm here.
That should have sent officials from the human resources ministry and the health ministry, those who are not involved in medical work, to rush to curb the possible spread of the disease among migrant workers in Malaysia.
Unfortunately, that did not happen. Otherwise, we would not have the current Covid-19 figures.
Would you be correct in saying that this is due to incompetence?
What happened in Singapore should also have caused employers to rush to ensure better and more widely spaced living and working conditions among migrant workers at their jobs. They should have put the health of their workers and the health of those close to their factory above profit.
Unfortunately, that did not happen. Otherwise we would not have seen the current peak in the cases.
Would you be correct in saying that this is due to greed?
About half of Singapore’s foreign workers – 152,000 or 47% – have been infected, according to a report from mid-December 2020.
Singapore acted swiftly by testing migrant workers in dormitories, segregating the infected, establishing “isolation areas” and providing accommodation in empty government flats, military camps and exhibition centers to ensure physical distancing.
If we had done something similar in, say, May, wouldn’t we have reduced the spread of the disease among migrant workers and in society at large?
Last month, the Minister of Human Resources, M Saravanan, said that 91.1% of the 1.4 million foreign workers in the country lived in housing that did not comply with the provisions of the Minimum Housing Standards Law and Services for Workers of 1990 (Law 446). Did the ministry discover this only in December?
What about the roughly 3 to 4 million undocumented immigrants in the country? One suspects that most of them also live in crowded conditions.
As a society, we must bear part of the blame because many of us do not care how migrant workers live or are treated. We know that they work in plantations and factories and elsewhere; some of us even know that they live in unsanitary conditions, but that doesn’t affect us directly, so we don’t bother. Now, however, it is hitting us square in the face and we are taking notice. I plead guilty to this.
The Covid-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to fix things and I hope that the ministry of human resources and related ministries do not delay the need to protect the interests of migrant workers.
Although initially the Ministry of Health had things under control, the situation slowly deteriorated. This is likely due, among other things, to political and economic considerations, as there is a need to balance lives and livelihoods.
The state elections on September 26 in Sabah caused an increase in Covid-19 cases. The increase came just as everyone was happy that Malaysia had managed to control the spread of the deadly disease after strict restraint moves and standard operating procedures.
Many blamed the government for not insisting on a mandatory review or a 14-day quarantine for those returning from campaigning in Sabah, because the spike in cases, especially on the peninsula, came after politicians returned to their home states. origin. Malaysians saw the politicians, both in person and in video clips that were widely shared, flouting standard operating procedures while campaigning.
Many also said that the sudden increase in cases could have been avoided if only the government had imposed a travel ban on Sabah. This was because Sabah had the highest number of cases in the country at the time of the elections.
It is not as if the government, particularly the Ministry of Health, is unaware of the danger.
And when cases began to rise, the government’s response seemed somewhat erratic, with rapidly changing standard operating procedures and double standards in enforcement. Nor did he foresee that conditions in cells, detention centers and jails were conducive to the spread of the disease.
Can we get mad at someone who thinks this smells like ineptness?
But it is not just the ineptitude of some ministers and public officials or the greed of some employers; it is also due to the impact of the intense post-Sheraton politicking that precipitated the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government.
The continued increase in cases is also due to the indifference of some of us who do not understand the need to observe PCOS or do not give a damn.
The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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