Things aren’t looking good for our northern neighbour — Malaysia has just reported 125 new Covid-19 cases today (16 Mar).
With their tally of infections now at 533, Malaysia is now the worst-hit Covid-19 country in Southeast Asia.
Malaysia’s Ministry of Health announced on its Facebook page that most of the new cases are linked to the cluster at the Kuala Lumpur mosque, where 95 Singaporeans were among attendees of a religious event.
Here’s a breakdown of the concentration in cases by state.
Selangor state and the federal territory of Kuala Lumpur & Putrajaya are the 2 most affected places in the country — with 144 and 106 cases respectively.
Such news continues to be concerning. This is especially since Malaysia just reported 190 new Covid-19 cases yesterday (15 Mar) — the country’s biggest spike in infections to date.
If you have family and/or friends in Malaysia and are extremely concerned, you should let them know to expect an address from their Prime Minister tonight.
Malaysian English news publication The Sun Daily reports that Muhyiddin Yassin will announce the country’s plans on managing the Covid-19 situation tonight.
He said that he’ll be chairing a special meeting later this evening with ministries and agencies under the National Security Council on how to tackle the crisis.
Mr Muhyiddin was quoted as saying,
We view it very seriously; we have come to the second wave of this problem and, of course, the spike of cases has increased.
Hence they’ll be announcing tonight to inform Malaysians all necessary steps and measures to better manage the virus.
With a teaser like this, it’s anybody’s guess on what Malaysia’s big plans will be tonight. Whether it is more restrictive measures, a full-on lockdown, or mandatory quarantine for travellers, we hope they can contain the outbreak soonest.
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Featured image adapted from AFP.