Coronavirus: as Malaysia braces for third wave of infections, doctors make their own face masks
- Malaysia hopes that extension of lockdown can head off a third wave of coronavirus infections
- But some doctors fear it may already have arrived, while front line health workers say the fight is being undermined by uncooperative patients
Doctors hope the move this week by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to extend the lockdown until April 14 will buy them precious time to mitigate against rising infection rates and prevent a spike in cases when the controls are lifted, with health ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah saying on Wednesday he hoped to prevent the country from reaching 6,000 cases.
“With this movement control order, we hope to trace and identify positive cases, and these will then be isolated and given treatment,” said Dr Noor. “We hope with our actions, God willing, we are able to reduce the number of cases so that it does not reach 6,000; that is our target, we try to flatten the exponential curve,”
The aim is to prevent a third wave of infections following on from the first wave of cases imported from China and a second wave linked to a religious event at the end of February.
But medical workers say the fight against the virus is being undermined by patients lying about their travel histories and flouting quarantine conditions. Many say they are also facing a shortage of necessary equipment, with one doctor reporting making her own face masks using plastic bought from a stationary store.
Meanwhile, some senior doctors warn that the exodus caused by the lockdown, as Malaysians returned to their hometowns from major cities, may have helped to spread the virus.
