Continue staying at home, help frontliners fight COVID-19

KUALA LUMPUR,  April 7 --  The announcement by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday of the RM10-billion Prihatin Package for SMEs (Additional Measures) to help ease the financial burden of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) was surely welcome news.

Among others, it ensured that two-thirds of workers in the country will continue to have jobs even if they are affected by the Movement Control Order (MCO) imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19.

This includes increasing the allocation for the wage subsidy program announced on March 27 to RM13.8 billion from RM5.9 billion, an additional RM7.9 billion.

The Prime Minister also created the PRIHATIN Special Grant of RM2.1 billion specifically for all qualified micro-SMEs.

So what do Malaysians have to do now?

They should continue staying at home and comply with the instructions of phase two of the MCO which enters its seventh day today, so as to help flatten the curve and attain the zero level COVID-19 infections in the country.

The sixth day yesterday saw the number of people throughout the country detained for non-compliance of the MCO increase by 51 per cent to 554 persons compared to 368 on Saturday.

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the increase could be due to the fact that many people saw Sunday as a day for an outing.

This should not have been the case as the frontliners are still working hard to ensure that the COVID-19 chain of infection is broken.

Yesterday’s good news that the number of people cured of COVID-19 was the highest so far at 239 persons should have been an impetus for all Malaysians to continue staying at home and abide by the MCO.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the number brings the cumulative total of cases which have fully recovered from COVID-19 and discharged from ward to 1,241 cases as of yesterday.

Up till noon yesterday, there were 131 new cases reported, bringing the number of positive COVID-19 cases in the country to 3,793.

Meanwhile, there have been 56 areas in nine states which have undergone the disinfection process, including 27 in and six in Sarawak.

The Foreign Ministry has also informed that 6,749 Malaysians who were stranded in countries have been brought back here.

The government has been steadily increasing its efforts to ensure that the country becomes free of COVID-19, for the sake of the people’s safety and health.

It is now the responsibility of the people to help the frontliners by continuing to stay at home while taking all steps to ensure cleanliness and practising social distancing when they have to be outside the house.

As the Prime Minister said, carry on with the usual activities which are beneficial, even if you have to wear your wife’s house clothes, cycle indoors or ‘rap’ to his speech, what is important is that you continue to be strong in these difficult times.

Stay at home, we will win this!

-- BERNAMA