This comes after senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government would review the need to continue or relax the total lockdown SOPs under the movement control order (MCO 3.0) if the daily infections drop to below 4,000 cases.

Center for Market Education (CME) CEO Carmelo Ferlito said a much more comprehensive plan is needed because only taking into account the number of daily infections will see more cases after restrictions are eased.

“This non-strategy will force Malaysia to experience more lockdowns for another year or so. We need much more than this, the country cannot survive another year under these conditions,” he said in a statement.

Ferlito said Malaysia’s target should not only be to minimise infections but also allow the strongest part of the population to develop targeted immunity while the most vulnerable are protected with ad hoc initiatives and home-care strategies.

He said a medical strategy such as enhancing pharmaceutical research for effective treatments should be done to help fight against Covid-19.

He also said businesses had to commit to testing their staff on a weekly basis and this could be done through affordable tools made available by rapid testing technology.

“On the other side, when mass, frequent and affordable testing is introduced, the government should commit to leaving businesses to operate and make their testing expenses tax deductible,” he said, adding that mass and frequent testing will allow earlier detection of Covid cases.

Ferlito said more investments are needed to strengthen the healthcare system with the joint effort from both the government and the private sector.

He said these recommendations are aimed to further minimise mortality rates and achieve targeted immunity to avoid further social and humanitarian disasters.

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