It’s been five years: A woman taking a wefie with her friends in Kuala Lumpur yesterday in front of a mural tribute to frontliners and healthcare workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. — FAIHAN GHANI/The Star
PETALING JAYA: Five years after the Covid-19 pandemic first hit Malaysia, claiming thousands of lives by the end, the country needs to strengthen its disease surveillance and invest more in healthcare resources, say experts.
Looking back at the country’s experience in managing the unprecedented coronavirus that morphed into a full-blown global emergency and pandemic, they said Malaysia had performed well.
Public health expert Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said there was no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic had significantly affected Malaysia, especially in terms of the cost of medical care.
“Only recently, most sectors have slowly recovered. But the good thing is that we learnt and we succeeded,” he said.
He added that Malaysia had performed well both in terms of managing the risk of the pandemic as well as in minimising the loss of human life and in curbing complications.
However, Dr Zainal Ariffin said there were a few weaknesses such as the movement control order, excess vaccine stocks, and the issue of procurement of equipment that can be improved upon.
In the effort to manage future pandemics effectively, he said the authorities must strengthen disease surveillance, invest more in training as well as get new and improved equipment.
He said Malaysia also needs to face the reality of the exit of the United States from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the emergence of global anti-vaccination movements.
Assoc Prof Dr Tan Toh Leong, a consultant emergency physician and senior lecturer at the Faculty of Medicine of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, said policies on public health have changed drastically over the years.
“If we look five years back, the situation was different. We learnt a painful lesson but we have gone through that stage.
“Those in the medical field were facing a lot of challenges such as a lack of equipment but we used whatever resources we had then. When there was a surge in infections, we ran out of hands but we stuck together.
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“It was a historical and memorable moment,” he said, adding that many had lost their colleagues while fighting Covid-19.
“As frontliners, we have to deal with all kinds of situations. It is like working during a war – there was fear, confusion and anxiousness and the possibility that we might die anytime,” he said.
Looking forward, he said the country was now more prepared to face the possibility of another pandemic.
“We have all the standard operating procedures and everything is more systematic. I think we just need more awareness and research on this field,” he said.
In his speech in conjunction with International Day of Epidemic Preparedness last year, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that the world remains dangerously unprepared for the next pandemic despite the harrowing lessons of Covid-19.
“Covid-19 was a wake-up call to the world,” he said, while reflecting on the devastating human, economic and social toll of the pandemic.
“The crisis may have passed but a harsh lesson remains: the world is woefully unprepared for the next pandemic,” he added.
The coronavirus first broke out in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019, and claimed over 37,000 lives in Malaysia with over five million cases.
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Globally, over seven million people have died due to Covid-19.
Covid-19 was declared a global emergency and lockdowns were imposed by governments all over the world.
In Malaysia, the first lockdown or MCO was imposed on March 18, 2020, to contain the spread of the virus.
Countries scrambled for vaccines while pharmaceutical giants raced against time to develop vaccines to beef up protection against the virus.
That same year, the first Covid-19 vaccines were developed and emergency authorisations and conditional approvals were given.
In Malaysia, the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme began on Feb 24, 2021, with over 80% of the population ultimately vaccinated with two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.