As of now I'm writing this post, it's just the start of April 2020 and I already feel like it's coming to an end of 2020. Just in the month of January, there were already a lot of things happened in the world. However the news that caught the whole world's attention even until now is the Corona virus disease aka Covid-19.
During December 2019, news from China reported that there was an unknown virus outbreak in Wuhan city, and the virus starting to spread across the Hubei province. In January 2020, scientist in China announced this unknown virus is a new type of corona-virus, and in 11th February World Health Organization (WHO) announced the official name for this corona-virus as COVID-19, however in Chinese there are people call it as 武汉肺炎(wu han fei yan) or 新冠状病毒 (xin guan zhuang bing du). This covid-19 is a respiratory disease which cause damage to our lungs and make us difficulty to breathe. What make this covid-19 so scary is its spreading speed. Just weeks after the announcement of outbreak in Wuhan city, there were already tons of cases reported across China.
During January 2020, more and more cases were reported across China and everyone in China were panic about it and buy as many disposable surgical mask as they can which cause an out of stock situation almost everywhere in China. Many countries especially Asia are following the news quite closely because SARS in 2003 affected these countries the most like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. Due to several outbreak locations in China, just a few days before Chinese New Year China President Xi announced a lockdown in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei in an effort to quarantine the outbreak. On 22nd January, I will be taking a night bus back home for CNY and because of the seriousness of this covid-19 in China, I went to donki to buy some mask to wear during the trip back home for precaution. At donki I already saw some people (I suspect they are from China) are hoarding up the mask in the basket, so the mask section there is almost empty. Luckily I still manage to buy 1 pack of 5 pieces to use during my trip back home.
Along my trip back home I already can see some people were wearing mask even though there wasn't any case in Malaysia yet. I thought I could buy some boxes of mask in my hometown because I heard the masks in Singapore was going out of stock too. However on 24th January, even the masks in the pharmacies of my hometown also out of stock. Not just Singapore and Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan also facing the same situation. Some pharmacies have no choice but only allow people to buy few pieces of masks instead of boxes. There were photos and videos showing people in Hong Kong queuing up a few blocks away from the pharmacy just to buy the mask. Even though Singapore government discourage people to wear mask out and only wear it when you are sick, but to protect ourselves and the people around us, we think it's still better to wear mask when going out to work.
On 23rd January, Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH) announced the first positive covid-19 case which was an imported case from China. Subsequently there were few cases coming up in the next few days. On 25th January, Malaysia also announced the first covid-19 case at Johor which was a Chinese people land in Singapore and went to Johor thru Woodlands checkpoint. Slowly other countries like Hong Kong and Taiwan also reported few positive covid-19 cases and most of them were people went there from China. In February 2020, number of cases in other countries gradually increase but China hit 50k around mid February. There was one case that caught international's attention in February was the Diamond Princess cruise. The cruise ship began its journey around end January from Yokohama and stop by several countries like Japan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. However the cruise went back to Yokohama ahead of schedule when one of the passengers who boarded at Yokohama and got off at Hong Kong tested positive for covid-19. All 3700 people on board were subject to a 14 days quarantine. During that period, the number of cases reported keep on increasing. As of 5th March, the total confirmed cases on the Diamond Princess cruise ship is 696.
Due to the selfishness of a person or a lack of concern from the government, it may cause a disaster in their country. Around end February there was a person in South Korea who rejected the covid-19 test twice when she already got the symptoms of coughing and fever. By the time she was tested positive, she already went to a few big crowded events like religious related and wedding. Due to the spreading speed of this virus, the number of cases in South Korea suddenly spike where the number reported double up everyday which cause an exponential increase. In 10 days, the figure rise from 600 to over 6000. Fortunately, they manage to slow down the outbreak after that. As of now there is over 10k cases there. It may seems a lot, but it's still not in the top 10 country with the most cases. China now has 81k cases and it's not the country with the most number of cases.
March 2020 is a disaster month for Europe and USA. It started off from Italy where there is an increasing number of cases with 3 digits figure reported everyday to 4 digits figure. Big events like football and other sports is being stopped to avoid a big crowd and later on a country lockdown. This goes the same to Spain, Franc, Germany and even Britain. UEFA announced to stop all the Champions League and Europa League matches until further notice. The football league in respective countries also postpone all the matches until further notice. As a football fans, it has been a boring month as there is no matches to watch. The outbreak in Europe is critical now where total number of cases in Italy, Spain, Germany and France already surpassed China. Italy and Spain now have over 110k of cases. However they are still not the country with the most number of cases. Under the leadership of Trump, as of 4th April 2020 USA now has over 277k number of covid-19 cases where 3 weeks ago they only have less than 3 thousands cases.
Besides Europe countries, it was also a worrying month in Malaysia. Since the first case reported on 25th January, the situation in Malaysia was quite stable and there was a period of time where the number of cases stop at 22 in February. However because of the political benefits, Muhyiddin and Azmin decided to work with BN and PAS to overthrown the PH government. So during the end of February there was 1 week Malaysia don't have a government. During that period of time, there was a mass Muslims gathering at Sri Petaling mosque with attendance of 16k people! Everyone only started to pay attention to this mass gathering when there was one Vietnamese reported positive case who went to the mass gathering. The number of cases started to increase again and in mid March the number suddenly spike. On 16th March, Malaysia current PM - Muhyiddin announced to implement Movement Control Order (MCO) from 18th to 31st March. This MCO is a rule to stop everyone from going out to work except for those working in essential services like F&B, supermarket, banking and so on. Basically is just asking everyone to stay at home this period of time in order to prevent the further spreading of covid-19. However the spreading has no sign of slowing down, so on 25th March Muhyiddin announced to extend MCO until 14th April with stricter rules implemented from April. The rules included can only drive out at a period of time, each car can only have the driver, and can only drive up to 10 km from your house. As of now Malaysia has 3333 cases, the numbers are increasing stable and not an outbreak like Europe and USA. All thanks to the effort of our Director General of Health, Dato Seri Dr. Noor Hisham and his team and all the front-line doctors, nurses working their best to control the situation.
Seeing Malaysia already announced a MCO, I had a feeling Singapore will also come to this stage any time soon. The number of cases here also keep on increasing with 2 digits figure everyday, and more and more unlink cases reported. Singapore government implemented stricter and stricter rules trying to control the spread. First is to close all entertainment services like cinema and night clubs, then is encourage social distancing where everyone queuing must be at least 1 meter apart, and the seats in food courts, restaurant, cafe must be separated with each table 1 person only. However there is no sign of getting better, so on 3rd April Singapore PM Lee announced to implement a circuit breaker which is basically asking everyone to work from home for 1 month starting from 7th April to 4th May.
So from next Tuesday onward I will be working from home for a month. So in April I will just be staying in my room most of the time facing my laptop and PS4. 2020 really is not a good start of a decade because of this pandemic COVID-19. Most likely 2020 will end just like that, where everyone just stay at their own place without going anywhere this year. I hope I am wrong, and things will get better in May or June. For this to happen, everyone have to do their part. So just stay home and don't wander around anymore! Everyone, please
STAY SAFE! STAY STRONG!
[Edited on 26th April 2020]
After entering the Circuit Breaker month, Singapore's COVID-19 cases had increased exponentially. The daily increment changed from tenths of cases to hundreds of cases to thousands! The total number of cases even surpassed Malaysia's number. As of now (26th April) Singapore total cases is 12,693, over 10k already while Malaysia's total cases is still 5,742. Singapore now is the country with the most number of COVID-19 cases in South East Asia region. After seeing worrying figures arising, on 21st April President Lee announced that the Circuit Breaker will be extended another 4 months until 1st June with tighter measurement.
Even tough the daily increment figures seems horrifying, 90% of the cases are actually from the migrant workers' dormitory clusters. This is due to the poor living condition and tight spaces, it's easier to get infected there. On the other hand, the local cases had been quite low and it can be seen that the circuit breaker has taken its effect. To ensure that there won't be a third wave, Singapore government decided to extend the Circuit Breaker in order to eliminate the spread. Just hope in May the situation can get better and things can go back to normal slowly.
On the other side, there are positive news in Malaysia. Even though the MCO had been extended twice, from 14th April to 28th April and now to 12th May, the situation in Malaysia seems to be getting better. Over the last 10 days, the daily increment cases has been maintaining at 2 digits figure and the number of recovered cases surpass the number of confirmed cases over these period. Now the total number of recovered cases is over 60% of the confirmed cases which is really a positive sign. Thanks to the effort of our Health DG Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham and his team, and Dr Hisham recently has been recognized by China Global TV Network as one of the 3 leading doctors in the fight of covid-19, along with USA infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci and New Zealand's Health DG, Ashley Bloomfield (news) (video). With the situation seems to be getting better, Malaysia government starting to loosen some measurements. Now they are allowing those who went back to hometown before the MCO started to go back to city. They also allow University and college students who are staying in the campus to go back their hometown as long as neither places is a red region.
Now is the beginning of Malay's Ramadan month, many people worry this will spark another wave of COVID-19 virus and so many countries has banned people from going to mosque for praying. Just hope our fellow Malays can follow the rules and don't gather in the mosque as a group to pray. If everyone do their part, stay at home, practice social distancing, keep washing hands, I believe we can go back to our normal life soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment