Merdeka.com – Malaysia has imposed a strict national lockdown since Tuesday (1/6) to combat the worsening coronavirus outbreak, as countries in Southeast Asia struggle with a spike in cases due to the emergence of a contagion of the coronavirus variant.
Much of Malaysia escaped the first wave of the pandemic last year, as it closed borders quickly and imposed restrictions.
But countries from Thailand to Vietnam are being hit by a new surge, where efforts to stop the outbreak have been hampered by slow vaccine rollouts and societies tired of restrictions.
Malaysia is among the most affected. Of the nearly 2,800 Covid-19 deaths recorded in the country of 32 million since the start of the pandemic, more than 40 percent have occurred in May.
More than 570,000 infections have been reported, with a series of new diaries last week. In addition to the new variant of the corona virus, the outbreak was also driven by crowd activity during Ramadan and the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
Under what authorities are calling a “total lockdown” effective from Tuesday, only essential businesses – such as supermarkets and medical clinics – are allowed to operate, people can only go out for certain purposes, and most schools are closed.
Travel between most states was banned for months.
Despite calls for tougher action, the two-week lockdown could deal a new blow to many businesses that have struggled to stay afloat for the past year.
“The impact of the coronavirus on small businesses like mine is devastating,” said Lilian Chua, whose salon outside the capital Kuala Lumpur had to close.
“The government is in lockdown but the virus is in the air – they need to speed up vaccinations,” the 42-year-old continued.
Less than six percent of Malaysians have so far received at least one dose of the vaccine. [pan]
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