PUTRAJAYA, March 24 — Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has warned today that Malaysia may end up like Italy if the public continues to flout the movement control order (MCO) imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19 infection.
Using the “carrot and stick” metaphor, Dr Noor Hisham said perhaps it was time to use the punishment approach against those who are still stubborn as the government has been relatively lenient in enforcing measures to restrict the spread among the populace.
“We are trying to use the carrot...well I’ve been using the carrot for the last couple of weeks.
“Perhaps it is time for us to use the stick. The choice is actually [up] the public,” he told a press conference at the Ministry of Health here.
Dr Noor Hisham had earlier forewarned the possibility of a high infection and mortality rate of Covid-19 in the country if Malaysians continues to disregard the MCO.
“It depends on us now, im throwing back the question at you.
“If you obey our instruction, help the government to stay at home and break the, chain of infection then we have small opportunity to break transmission of virus,” he said, referring to his ministry.
“But if you dont follow, despite what has been done by the ministry, the virus will continue to spread.
“So the choice now, the succeed and failure does not depend on the ministry but in each and everyone one of you,” he added.
In recent weeks, Italy’s death toll has climbed past 6,000 and overtaken China’s where the outbreak first started.
The country’s latest tally reported a total of 6,077 deaths from 63,928 infections, with a world-leading fatality rate of more than 9 per cent.
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