KUCHING: Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah is appealing to all Malaysians to remain vigilant and play their role in helping the nation avert a second wave of Covid-19 infection.
The Health director-general said Malaysians must be aware of the second wave of Covid-19 that had already hit other countries including Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.
“Let’s learn from other countries so that we can keep the second wave of Covid-19, which is more devastating, at bay. This (second wave of Covid-19) is my worry and I urge Malaysians to comply with safe physical distance, always wash your hands and wear face mask,” he said in a Facebook post last night.
Dr Noor Hisham also reminded Malaysians to avoid hanging around in public places, stressing that it would be safer to stay at home.
“We take care of ourselves, we take care of our families. We take care of this community and this country of ours,” he said.
Posted along with the reminder was a chart showing the second wave of Covid-19 that had struck Australia, Hong Kong and Japan.
The chart reflected that Australia, which recorded slightly over 500 new Covid-19 positive cases a day in March and April, saw a spike last month to nearly 750 new positive cases daily.
It also showed that Hong Kong recorded an increase of new Covid-19 positive cases to nearly 150 daily last month, compared to under 100 cases a day in March.
In Japan, over 500 Covid-19 positive cases were recorded in March and April and such number way exceeded 1,000 during the second wave of the virus infection.
Dr Noor Hisham’s social media post received overwhelming responses from netizens, some of whom thanked him for the reminder while there were others calling for government’s further action to stop a possible second wave of Covid-19.
“Stop kes import” (stop imported cases), “Universiti should not request lecturer to go to uni” and “lack of enforcement by authorities.. it’s all relaxed after ‘Released (Recovery) MCO’.. peoples and authorities feels safe now but it’s wrong..” were among the comments that urged the government to do more.
There were others praying for the country, “Saya harap tidak ada gelombang kedua di Malaysia seperti negara lain” (I hope there is no second wave in Malaysia like other countries), and “Hope next one won’t be malaysia.. can see lots of workers and people at shopping centre wearing mask for chin (an emoticon) no people bother ..”.
An interesting comment reads “social distancing has been changed to physical distancing….”, which implied that there might be a lack of physical distancing within the community.
Some netizens also offered encouraging comments like “Kita belum menang..” (we have not won) and “We united… We must win! Come on Malaysia.. Don’t Give Up..We Will Win!!!”.