Even before the Movement Control Order (MCO) was in place, Lisa Surihani and her husband, Yusry Abdul Halim, decided not to send their children – aged two and four – to school anymore as they observed the situation involving Covid-19 escalating in the country.
“I also went to buy some essential items, not panic-buying, just the basic goods because I suspected some sort of restricted order would be put in place soon, ” she said in a phone interview.
Luckily, the pre-school and the religious schools that the children go to agreed with the couple and have been emailing schoolwork for the children to do while staying home. This in turn allows Lisa to do educational activities with them.
“My kids enjoy going to school. Now that I am home with them a lot, I have more time to invest in playing with them, learning together, etc. And they get it when we explain the situation to them, why they have to stay home, ” said Lisa who, on her Instagram feed, shared how she told her children of the medical heroes who are working tirelessly to fight “the naughty and nasty virus” and keeping everyone safe.
Lisa is making sure her family stays within the four walls of their house.
“My mother-in-law lives just next door with their cousins, but we are all just staying in our respective homes. We send videos of the kids to her and just call each other to make sure everyone is OK. Yes, we are taking this very seriously because the risk is just too high.
“Luckily, we live in a digital age, so we can keep in touch and keep abreast of information easily, ” added the actress.
She also shared that during the second week of March, she was very ill.
“I was shivering, and Yusry has never seen me ill like that... ever.”
The couple went to the hospital to test for Covid-19.
“You have to wait for 24 hours for the result and it was the most intense 24 hours of my life. My fever broke the same day we did the test and the test result was, thankfully, negative.”
Workwise, Lisa was in the middle of shooting the drama series Pelindung Seorang Puteri with Yusry as its director, when the MCO was announced.
“We agreed to stop production for now. We were supposed to air the first episode on Monday (March 23). But the air date has now been postponed as we’ve only filmed 50% of the 16-episode drama.”
Lisa hopes all Malaysians will heed the government’s call to stay home and break the chain of the virus attack.
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