YOURSAY | Another throw of the dice in our fight against Covid

YOURSAY | ‘Easing restrictions at this stage may sound the death knell.’

PM unveils relaxed rules for people fully vaccinated against Covid-19

Dr Raman Letchumanan: The number of Covid-19 cases has not come down one bit while the death rate is increasing. In a small state like Malacca, hospitals are already facing difficulty and unable to cope due to higher patient inflow. Relaxing the restrictions at this stage may sound the death knell.

Those who have been fully vaccinated are going to gallivant cheerfully with a false sense of security and become the new spreaders.

Most Malaysians do not read widely, and some are just too lazy to Google and find out about the Covid-19 pandemic and its variants, especially the Delta variant which is wreaking havoc not only in Malaysia but also overseas.

Countries like Australia which has only about 100 cases are tightening up and imposing lockdown; can't Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin learn from others?

Even if one is fully vaccinated, they are still prone to Covid-19 virus infection. These are called vaccine breakthrough cases, but you are unlikely to fall very ill and may not require hospitalisation because those vaccines have helped increase the number of 'soldiers' in your body to fight the virus. But the virus is not going to relax, it loves the human host to survive, and it will find ways to mutate. Please use your own judgement to stay risk-free or at least minimise the risk of contracting the virus, even if you are fully vaccinated.

Muhyiddin and his sycophants have totally lost the plot. He is only doing this for his own survival, now that he is on the verge of being toppled. There is no science and data involved in this decision to relax the restrictions. He has used up his goodwill, if he had any, by prolonging the movement control order (MCO) while unnecessarily opening backdoor access to so-called essential services.

He hopes people will be happy with this relaxation. But the reverse may happen - more infections and more deaths. What about the 12 million under 18 who have yet to be vaccinated? They’re sitting ducks. The new variants are infecting younger people.

Clever Voter: The easing of the restrictions is nothing more than another throw of the dice in a tense situation. Infection rates continue to be on an upward trend, with casualties equally bad.

Muhyiddin and his cabinet have run out of options but they appease the community with more easing of the restrictions. Public trust in his leadership is long gone, with anger and severe consequences to follow.

The increasing Covid-19 cases ironically provide the regime with the excuse and justification to hang on to power that irritates more. Indeed, Muhyiddin has lost the plot to overcome the problems.

DalvinK: It is clear as daylight that Perikatan Nasional (PN) is still clueless about how Covid-19 spreads - even after almost two years! Vaccinated people can still get infected and spread the virus.

Many of these relaxations shouldn't come as the cases are hitting an all-time high. It is clear PN government wants to keep the daily cases high to keep the Parliament closed.

Open the Parliament and debate whether your newfound idea will work - because all your ideas in the past had failed.

Anonymous 79: Our country is only at 26.7 percent, or around eight million, for the fully vaccinated.

In July, the United States has got more than 40 percent of its population fully vaccinated. Yet suddenly, the Delta variant starts to spread across the US. Now its daily infection rate is more than 100,000.

So, by common sense, looking at the current trend, if the government allows the relaxation of rules, will the death rate and new infections go up or down? I bet it will go up.

Now, we have many deaths because our healthcare system cannot cope with so many cases. We don't have enough manpower to take care of all Covid-19 patients.

Even if you receive two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine today, you still need some time to build up the antibody. This means we still have a long way to go before we can safely open up. But PN gives us a different message - we are OK to dine in at restaurants, we are OK to travel, we are OK to visit our parents.

Who will take responsibility for the rising number of deaths then? It is the failure of the people in power to manage this pandemic. Recently, the US recorded 206 deaths from Covid-19. What about Malaysia? The latest toll was 360. When will this number go down?

GMan: I urge everyone to review international statistics and data from the World Health Organisation (WHO), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), and Europe on how many out of how many people get infected, how many get hospitalised and the number of deaths after full vaccination.

Read up to satisfy ourselves instead of believing in hearsay, rumours or fake news, and then peddling and spreading unwarranted alarm and panic.

Vaccination is effective protection and if by remote chance a breakthrough infection happens, vaccine greatly reduces the need for hospitalisation or death. This is proven in the UK and the US through studies backed by evidence. But keeping to precautionary measures will create additional layers of protection to prevent break-through infections.

I wonder about some states like Kedah and Sabah, which have entered Phase 2 but have rising Covid-19 cases. Their full vaccination rate isn’t even high yet, but this relaxation of rules would apply to them.

Apa Nama: This virus, especially the Delta variant, will not relax at all, even when we relaxed the rules. Wearing masks (double layers), social distancing (two metres and more) and personal hygiene (washing hands regularly, etc) must be practised at all times.

I am not against this relaxation. However, the timing is not right. As I had commented last month, you should relax some of the rules when the fully vaccinated for the whole country is at least 50 percent and above. Now, we are under 30 percent as far as the entire country is concerned. Vaccination for one dose in some states is below 40 percent.

When you achieved 50 percent and above, then the relaxation of the rules should be gradually increased. It should not be done in one go.

Apanakdikato: Muhyiddin is blatantly ignoring the fact that the Delta strain, which is now the dominant strain, can be transmitted even by vaccinated individuals just as much as by unvaccinated individuals.

This relaxation of rules is again untimely and unscientific. At a time when the daily hospitalisation and fatality rates are still increasing at an alarming rate, and with more and more hospitals becoming dysfunctional due to severe overloading, this move can be seen as highly irrational and irresponsible.

Muhyiddin is making a populist move but in doing so, he is causing a total collapse of the healthcare system throughout the country. This is exactly the reason why Parliament must be opened to prevent bad decisions like this from being made with total impunity. 

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