Penang, July 3, 2021 – On June 15, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced a four-phase National Recovery Plan (NRP) with three main threshold indicators to be met before the nation can move on to the next phase. We welcome the federal government’s gradual Covid-19 exit plan that provides clear threshold indicators. However, it is worth noting that the Covid situation and progress of the immunisation programme vary across states. A decentralized approach that allows individual states to move on the NRP phases based on the fulfilment of their respective threshold indicators may be more pragmatic in balancing the repercussion of public health and economy.
The three indicators for Malaysia to shift into phase two of NRP are: 1) Average daily Covid-19 cases drop to below 4,000, 2) The healthcare system is no longer at a critical stage, with ICU bed usage returning to moderate levels and 3) 10% of the population has received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines. The 4,000 threshold indicates that daily Covid-19 new cases would need to go below 0.012% of Malaysia’s total population (32.75 million). The nation’s average daily new cases in June were 5,987, representing 0.018% of the country’s total population. However, in the context of Penang, the average daily new cases for June were 196, representing 0.011% of Penang’s total population (1.78 million), which is below the threshold indicator.
The current inoculation rate in Penang as of 30 June showed that 419,344 people have received at least 1 dose (24% of Penang’s population), out of which 123,065 people have been fully vaccinated (7% of Penang’s population). With the State’s ongoing efforts of accelerating the vaccination rate, the number of vaccine doses administered is on a rising trend, reaching daily doses of 15,443 on 30th June. Moreover, the federal government has also committed to deliver 591,532 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Penang in July, and together with optimizing the operation of vaccination centres (PPV), the State is making inroads to achieve the 10% fully vaccinated threshold.
In order to have an effective exit plan, sharing transparent and comprehensive data for each indicatoris crucial. Only by having up-to-date information that reflects the real situation on the ground, the citizens and private sector can act collectively and accordingly to achieve the indicators for different stages of the exit plan. As such, transparency on the state level data on daily tests being carried out; availability of ICU beds in the healthcare system and the number of vaccines being supplied are much needed.
Currently, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) Penang branch and the state government are facilitating on the Covid-19 testing to identify cases as early as possible to stamp the spread or before turning into a new cluster. Many Vaccination Centres (Pusat Pemberian Vaksin, PPVs) have been set up by the State and private sector to support the ramping up of the vaccination numbers. Importantly, the private sector is willing to support the need of the public healthcare system and to improve the latter’s facilities.
The Covid-19 may never go away. Vaccination is the only way to reduce the risk of infection as well as transmission. While our country is speeding up Covid-19 inoculations, a flexible approach in relaxing the economic activities based on the respective states’ fulfilment of indicators during the transition period may be more feasible. Continuous enforcement of SOPs nationwide and targeted lockdown could be the only way in reaching an equilibrium between saving lives and livelihoods among the citizens and businesses, particularly those that are gravely impacted by the lockdown.
