Second Quarter of 2020 ~ A Retrospective: A Virus so Powerful They Gave It A Crown
How it started
On top of the national political turmoil, the happenings on the second quarter of 2020 was something that we never imagined of except in the movie. Who would have thought that the whole world would be shaken and stood almost completely still because of a virus! Yep, the Coronaviruses (65–125 nm in diameter) had cause nothing but chaos since the first outbreak was reported sometime in December last year. The case was first discovered in Wuhan, China (well at least it was what the scientists believed to be) and within a short period of time, it has become a major outbreak.
Despite of it becoming a pandemic, the virus itself was not entirely
new. The earliest reported case was in the late 1920s and human coronaviruses
were discovered in the 1960s. It was interesting to know that the scientists named it ‘Corona’ which is Latin for
crown because of its spiky surface.
When we first heard about the case, we said to ourselves, “Wow, that’s bad”. But that was it. I was one of the unsusceptible or perhaps ignorant people who thought like “Yeah, there is a highly contagious disease going on ~ but we’ve seen it before -SARS, Ebola etc. We even had our own gruesome episodes dealing with the Nipah and J.E virus almost two decades ago. Moreover it was happening in China. So we should not be too worried about it, right?".
I still remember watching dozens of tourists from China still flocking around taking pictures and doing all the touristy stuff outside the compound of my office building in Putrajaya during that time. I still remember driving passed them and thought about the virus. And that was it. It never occurred to me (or us) that we going to deal with it one day. But we did eventually.
When I recollect of what had happened, it was a concoction of being in denial and ignorance. We might seen the worst was about to come, but we did not really prepare for it. On top of that, we were being reassured - "Malaysia is safe, stay positive" said a prominent leader exactly a month before the lockdown. But the heavy global human mobility and the characteristics of the virus had proved to be a lethal combination and it has been spreading like crazy ever since.
Within a short span of time, the virus had been spiralling out of control to almost every part of the world and on March, 11 2020 the WHO had officially declared it as a pandemic. On March 16, the newly appointed Prime Minister had made an announcement on the decision by the Government to implement a nationwide Restriction of Movement Order (MCO) or Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) starting on March 18 to March 31, 2020.
Malaysia is one of the earliest countries in the world to impose such measure in order to curb the further spread of this virus within the population. The total number of cases stood at 533 cases that time. It was not a an easy decision to be made by a 2-week Government I reckon as implementing the MCO means that the whole country was going to be temporarily paralyzed - all offices, businesses, schools, shops (except markets and grocery stores), factory (except for food productions etc.), tourist attractions and other non-essential premises were being shut down. No mass gatherings were allowed ~ be it for religious, social, sports or recreational purpose. Even the wajib Friday prayers could not being carried out. Interstate travel were being banned as well as travelling across the international borders. Foreign nationals were prohibited from entering the country and Malaysians returning home from overseas had to undergo a mandatory 14-days quarantine at the gazetted centres.
People had to be inside of the house at all time and only 1 person/household were allowed to go out to buy the groceries. Police and army were doing road blocks almost everywhere. The roads and malls that were usually crowded with vehicles and people were deserted. It was the time when the country and perhaps the whole world stood almost completely still. It still gives me shivers whenever I think of it.
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| Road blocks were everywhere Photo source: Bernama |
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| Deserted KL ~ a rare sighting of a city that never sleeps Photo source: Google Images |
It is estimated that the country is losing RM2.4 billions a day due to the suspension of the commercial activities. But this was something that had to be done. This is the classic case of decision making skills and I really respected the decision to put the people first - public health and safety should always be the top priority. It was a very brave and bold decision. I guess this is what we call a blessing in disguise ~ amidst the pandemic, we found those who really care for our well being and safety.
#LifeDuringMCO
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