KUALA LUMPUR - Almost all Malaysian economic sectors will be reopened from Monday (May 4) but they must abide by strict conditions, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Friday (May 1), as the country relaxes its movement curbs after more than six weeks of a partial lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
"After holding a meeting (with relevant agencies), we are ready to open up the economy," he said in a televised address on May Day.
Malaysia first imposed the movement control order (MCO) on March 18.
"Beginning May 4, almost all economic sectors will be allowed to open with conditions. This is important as business and work are sources of income. If we are under MCO for too long, we will not get any income and this will have a bad impact on your finances," he added.
Economic sectors that involve large gatherings of people will still remain shut, he said.
The Prime Minister said South-east Asia's third biggest economy suffered RM2.4 billion (S$800 million) in losses daily during the MCO, with total losses currently estimated at RM63 billion. And another RM35 billion will have to be added to this should the MCO be extended.
“I realise you are all worried. I am worried too, and in some nations too, when the lockdown ended, the number of Covid-19 positive cases increased exponentially.
“We must find ways to balance between healing the nation’s economy and addressing Covid-19.
“Based on advice from the Ministry of Health and based on collected data, and the best practice guide stipulated by the World Health Organisation, the government has decided to reopen economic sectors cautiously, by implementing stringent health standard operating procedures, beginning May 4," he said.
Additionally, Malaysia has also recorded a high patient recovery rate of 69.5 per cent.
The Health Ministry's director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on Tuesday (April 28) said that Malaysia is now in a "recovery phase" of the outbreak as recovered patients have outnumbered new cases.
The "conditional MCO" bars Malaysians from joining activities involving body contact such as football, rugby, swimming at public pools, religious mass gatherings and Ramadan food bazaars.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday (Apr 30) his hard-fought trade deal with China was now of secondary importance to the coronavirus pandemic and he threatened new tariffs on Beijing, as his administration crafted retaliatory measures over the outbreak.
Trump's sharpened rhetoric against China reflected his growing frustration with Beijing over the pandemic, which has cost tens of thousands of lives in the United States alone, sparked an economic contraction and threatened his chances of re-election in November.
Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a range of options against China were under discussion, but cautioned that efforts were in the early stages. Recommendations have not yet reached the level of Trump’s top national security team or the president, one official told Reuters.
"There is a discussion as to how hard to hit China and how to calibrate it properly," one of the sources said as Washington walks a tightrope in its ties with Beijing while it imports personal protection equipment (PPE) from there and is wary of harming a sensitive trade deal.
Trump made clear, however, that his concerns about China's role in the origin and spread of the coronavirus were taking priority for now over his efforts to build on an initial trade agreement with Beijing that long dominated his dealings with the world's second-largest economy.
"We signed a trade deal where they're supposed to buy, and they've been buying a lot, actually. But that now becomes secondary to what took place with the virus," Trump told reporters. "The virus situation is just not acceptable."
The Washington Post, citing two people with knowledge of internal discussions, reported on Thursday that some officials had discussed the idea of canceling some of the massive US debt held by China as a way to strike at Beijing for perceived shortfalls in its candidness on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trump's top economic adviser denied the report. "The full faith and credit of US debt obligations is sacrosanct. Period. Full stop," White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Reuters.
Asked whether he would consider having the United States stop payment of its debt obligations as a way to punish Beijing, Trump said: "Well, I can do it differently. I can do the same thing, but even for more money, just by putting on tariffs. So, I don't have to do that."
WAR OF WORDS
Seeking to quell a damaging trade war, Trump signed a first phase of a multibillion-dollar trade deal with China in January that cut some US tariffs on Chinese goods in exchange for Chinese pledges to purchase more American farm, energy and manufactured goods and address some US complaints about intellectual property practices.
Tariffs of up to 25 per cent remain on some US$370 billion worth of Chinese goods imports annually.
Trump has touted his tough stance on China trade as a key differentiator from Democratic challengers in the presidential race. Keeping tariffs in place on Chinese goods allows him to say he is maintaining leverage over China for a Phase 2 trade deal.
Speaking to reporters, Trump declined to say whether he held Chinese President Xi Jinping responsible for what he feels is misinformation from China when the virus emerged from Wuhan, China, and quickly spread around the world.
A senior Trump administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Wednesday that an informal “truce” in the war of words that Trump and Xi essentially agreed to in a phone call in late March appeared to be over.
Washington and Beijing have traded increasingly bitter recriminations over the origin of the virus and the response to it.
Trump and his top aides, while stepping up their anti-China rhetoric, have stopped short of directly criticising Xi, whom the US president has repeatedly called his “friend".
Among the other ideas under consideration for retaliation against China are sanctions, new non-tariff trade restrictions and a possible effort to lift China’s sovereign immunity, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Lifting sovereign immunity could allow the US government and American citizens to file lawsuits seeking damages from Beijing in US courts.
The options are being discussed, informally for now, across government agencies including the State Department, White House National Security Council, Treasury Department and Pentagon, two of the sources said.
The strongest pressure for action is coming from the National Security Council, including deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger, while Treasury officials are advising caution, the sources said.
Conversations are at a very preliminary stage and significant action is not considered imminent, the sources said. When asked, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has repeatedly said Washington's priority at the moment is to fight the virus but that the time to hold China accountable would come.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - United States President Donald Trump on Thursday (April 30) threatened China with fresh tariffs as he stepped up his attacks on Beijing over the coronavirus crisis, saying he had seen evidence linking a Wuhan lab to the contagion.
The diatribe from the Republican incumbent came as data showed the United States shed more than 30 million jobs in six weeks, as lockdown measures began to bite across the nation.
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus has so far killed more than 230,000 people and forced more than half of humanity to live under some kind of lockdown, which has crippled economies.
The virus is believed to have originated late last year in a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan that sold wild animals for human consumption, but speculation has swirled about a top-secret lab in the ground-zero city.
Asked if he had seen anything giving him a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the source of the outbreak, Trump replied: "Yes, I have."
Pressed by reporters at the White House for details on what made him so confident, Trump replied: "I cannot tell you that."
Trump is increasingly making Beijing's handling of the outbreak a major issue for his November re-election campaign.
When asked about reports that he could cancel US debt obligations to China, Trump said he could "do it differently" and act in "probably a little bit more of a forthright manner".
"I could do the same thing but even for more money, just putting on tariffs," he said.
Despite a truce in the long-running trade war between Washington and Beijing reached in January, tariffs are already in place on two-thirds of trade between the economic powers.
European and US markets finished the day in negative territory, as a spate of figures confirmed fears about how the Covid-19 crisis is pulverising global growth.
The latest jobless claims by another 3.84 million Americans translate into a jarring conclusion - roughly nine per cent of the US population has filed for unemployment benefits in six weeks.
In the midwestern US state of Michigan, protesters - some of them armed - stormed the state capitol building, demanding that the Democratic governor remove strict lockdown rules, which they say hurt the economy and represent governmental overreach.
The depressing US jobs data compounded the tough message from European Central Bank Christine Lagarde.
"The euro area is facing an economic contraction of a magnitude and speed that are unprecedented in peacetime," she warned.
ECB economists expect output in the 19-nation currency club to shrink by "five to 12 per cent" this year, she added.
Eurostat figures showed the eurozone economy was estimated to have shrunk by 3.8 per cent in the first quarter.
Germany, Europe's biggest economy, "will experience the worst recession in the history of the federal republic" - founded in 1949 - Economy Minister Peter Altmaier warned, predicting it would shrink by a record 6.3 per cent.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday (Apr 30) threatened new tariffs against Beijing after claiming there is evidence linking the coronavirus to a lab in China's ground-zero city of Wuhan.
Asked if he had seen anything giving him a high degree of confidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the origin of the outbreak, Trump replied, "Yes, I have."
The Republican is increasingly making complaints over Beijing's handling of the pandemic outbreak a major issue for his November re-election campaign.
He told reporters at the White House that US agencies were investigating how the virus first emerged and what China had done to stop it spreading to the rest of the world.
"We'll be able to get a very powerful definition of what happened," he said, adding that a report would be made to him "in the not too distant future."
But even as the issue remains under probe, Trump said he already has suspicions.
"They could have stopped it," he said, attacking China for not cancelling international flights out of the country in time.
Several theories are circulating on how the virus appeared in Wuhan, including that it emerged from a market selling live animals or accidentally from the Wuhan research lab.
The US intelligence community said Thursday it had concluded that the novel coronavirus originated in China but was not man-made or engineered.
Pressed by reporters at the White House for details on what made him so confident about a link to the laboratory, Trump replied: "I cannot tell you that."
Regardless of where blame lies for the outbreak, Trump is ramping up a war of words with Beijing, claiming again on Thursday that "China doesn't want to see me reelected."
Attention is now turning to what Trump will do in terms of threatened retaliation. The new tension comes only months after the US and China settled a trade war which had been roiling world markets.
Until now Trump has been notably vague on what measures he is considering but tariffs, he said, are a possibility.
But asked about reports that he could cancel US debt obligations to China, Trump said he could "do it differently" and act in "probably a little bit more of a forthright manner."
"I could do the same thing but even for more money, just putting on tariffs," he said.
BANGKOK: Thailand is preparing to relax some of its COVID-19 control measures nationwide from May 3, including reopening restaurants, cafes and markets with guidelines to prevent a second wave of infections.
Dr Thaweesilp Wisanuyothin, spokesperson for Thailand’s Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), said in a press conference on Thursday (Apr 30) that six types of activities and businesses will benefit from the partial relaxation.
While guidelines will be standardised by the CCSA for all areas nationwide, the regulations can be adjusted by provincial governors as they see fit as long as they are made stricter and not less stringent, he added.
The six types of activities and businesses include markets, eateries outside department stores, retailers, sports and recreational activities, hair salons and barbershops, as well as pet grooming and boarding businesses.
“This morning, the CCSA director said (the reopening) can start on May 3 if business operators are ready to do so by then. We’ll then spend 14 days to observe and assess the situation.
"If the numbers of new infections remain stable, it’ll show you cooperate well and know how to manage yourselves, your businesses and your activities. We’ll then be able to include more businesses and activities in the relaxation,” Dr Thaweesilp said.
However, he said the government will need to reverse the relaxation if the number of new cases increase during the 14-day observation period.
A vendor sells plastic face shield as protection against COVID-19 coronavirus at a stall in Bangkok on Apr 27, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Mladen Antonov)
So far, 2,687 people have been discharged from hospitals and 54 have died.
Based on the daily tally, the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand continues to improve.
On Wednesday, Bangkok released detailed guidelines for operators who will soon be able to resume their businesses and activities.
However, the nationwide curfew between 10pm and 4am will remain until the state of emergency ends on May 31.
"The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration would like to emphasise that the situation is not yet normal. The country continues to report new cases every day, which means COVID-19 is still spreading in places close to us and a second wave of infections is possible. It could be more serious than the first,” said Bangkok governor Aswin Kwanmuang on Wednesday.
"If the second wave of infections becomes likely, we may need to temporarily ban activities and close different venues again in order to control the situation.”
WASHINGTON: A US Navy guided-missile destroyer sailed through waters near the Paracel islands in the South China Sea challenging China's claim to the area, the Navy said on Wednesday (Apr 29).
The USS Barry undertook the so-called "freedom of navigation operation" on Tuesday, a week after Beijing upped its claims to the region by designating an official administrative district for the islands.
The US sought to assert the "rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea recognised in international law", the Navy said in a statement.
"Unlawful and sweeping maritime claims in the South China Sea pose an unprecedented threat to the freedom of the seas, including the freedoms of navigation and overflight and the right of innocent passage of all ships," it said.
The move came amid a rise in US-China tensions over the novel coronavirus epidemic, in which Washington has accused Beijing of hiding and downplaying the initial outbreak in December and January in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
The United States rejects China's territorial claim to much of the South China Sea, including the Paracels, also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.
The region is believed to have valuable oil and gas deposits.
In a statement on the People's Liberation Army website, the Chinese military said it had mobilised sea and air assets to track and warn the US vessel away from "Chinese territorial waters".
The PLA accused the United States of "provocative acts" that "seriously violated international law and China's sovereignty and security interests".
The US action was "also incompatible with the current joint efforts of international community to fight against the COVID-19", it said.
Last week China sought to further advance its territorial claims when it announced that the Paracel and nearby Spratly islands, the Macclesfield Bank and their surrounding waters would be administered under two new districts of Sansha city, which China created on nearby Woody Island in 2012.
It also announced official Chinese names for 80 islands and other geographical features in the South China Sea, including reefs, seamounts, shoals and ridges, 55 of them submerged in water.
KUALA LUMPUR: Two people from the same household will now be allowed to travel in the same car to purchase daily necessities, amid early signs of COVID-19 restrictions being eased in Malaysia.
Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a daily press conference on Wednesday (Apr 29) that they will also be allowed to obtain their daily necessities, health and medical services beyond the travel limit, provided those services are not available within 10km from their residence.
“The standard operating procedure (SOP) before this only allowed travel for one person in the vehicle within a 10km radius, and beyond 10km with the police’s discretion,” he said.
Malaysia is currently enforcing a movement control order (MCO) that restricts domestic and international travel to rein in the spread of COVID-19.
The MCO, which came into effect on Mar 18, has been extended three times until May 12. Wednesday marked the start of the fourth phase of MCO.
A member of the Royal Malaysia Police checks a travel document during the Movement Control Order, limiting the activities of people in Malaysia as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 25, 2020. (Photo: AFP/Mohd Rasfan)
As of Wednesday, Malaysia recorded a total of 5,945 cases, with 100 deaths. Recovery rate was 68.75 per cent.
Attributing the plateauing of new infections to the MCO measures, Health Ministry director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said the country is entering the recovery phase.
Beginning Monday, students at higher education institutes, who have been confined to their campus hostels for over a month under the MCO, have also begun returning home in stages.
In the latest phase of MCO, economic sectors that were previously allowed to operate during the first three phrases can run at full operational capacity, according to an announcement by Senior Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali.
Effective from tomorrow (29 April 2020), companies that have received MITI's approval to operate during the MCO period are allowed to increase its operating capacity to 100% without limitation on operating hours. pic.twitter.com/iiiqI9J9Gt
Dr Noor Hisham said on Wednesday that the Ministry of Health would monitor the situation for up to four weeks before proposing to reopen the social and educational sectors.
"We suggested and proposed the economic sectors be reopened first. The social and educational sector, we'll delay a bit," he said.
SINGAPORE - Some people have been spreading fake news about the situation in foreign worker dormitories here, to incite fear, panic and even violence, said Law and Home Affairs Minister K. Shanmugam on Wednesday (April 29).
These individuals, who the authorities understand are both local and foreign, have been circulating such falsehoods in the form of videos, photos and even doctored images of news channels, he said.
He cited a video clip that was circulating on social media platforms recently, claiming that a Bangladeshi worker had committed suicide in Singapore because of a lack of money and work.
Speaking to reporters via video conferencing on Wednesday, Mr Shanmugam said such falsehoods are being circulated online to create fear and panic among the foreign worker community of about 300,000 people.
"It's to create panic. It's to create unhappiness, anger, and hopefully violence," he said.
"And also to make our own people, Singaporeans, believe that... these foreign workers are being treated badly. It's a very malicious type of video."
He also noted that there was another video that was circulating of a fight in a dormitory between two men of South Asian origin.
"It was taken in a dorm in Dubai some time ago, but people try and pass it off as taken in Singapore," said Mr Shanmugam. The city of Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates, which hosts a migrant labour force of 8.7 million.
In another case, an audio recording was being circulated on text messaging platforms.
"Somebody supposedly working in Sembawang Shipyard, telling the Malay-Muslim community you better go and buy up because the Chinese are going to go into a panic buying mode, and there's a shortage of everything that you can think of," he said.
Old photos of food packets that have been served to foreign workers have also started re-circulating online, suggesting that the quality of food is bad, said Mr Shanmugam.
He added that the food issue has been dealt with by Manpower Minister Josephine Teo, and that food quality has "improved tremendously".
"But don't get me wrong, we are delivering several hundred thousand meals, three times a day for the workers. Majority of them tell us that the food quality is good. I'm not going to say to you therefore every single packet is good, or every single person is happy - not possible," Mr Shanmugam added.
But some people are deliberately re-circulating these old photos, or photos of food being thrown away in other countries, to encourage foreign workers here to "come out and complain, even when there is nothing to complain", he said.
"They don't realise that this is like playing with fire... You use falsehoods to foment trouble and make them angry, you don't know what might happen. There could be a serious law and order situation. This is serious, and we are looking at it seriously," said Mr Shanmugam.
The authorities will take action against people who deliberately spread such falsehoods. "When it's clearly criminal, we will charge them," he said.
Mr Shanmugam was also asked why a Singaporean man was charged in court on Monday, instead of being served a correction direction under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (Pofma), for allegedly posting false claims that supermarkets would only open two days a week as part of enhanced measures.
The man was charged with communicating a false message under the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act. If convicted, he can be jailed for up to three years and fined up to $10,000.
Mr Shanmugam said the facts of the case fit with the charge, which was brought on the man on the advice of the Attornery-General’s Chambers.
“You look at the previous cases where Pofma was used... in the vast majority, probably, there was no other criminal offence,” he added.
“When it’s a criminal offence, we will take action along those lines... but if it crosses the threshold for Pofma, we will use Pofma.”
BANGKOK: The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) will relax certain COVID-19 control measures in the Thai capital as its order to temporarily close venues with risks of infection comes to end on Thursday (Apr 30).
Its spokesperson Pongsakorn Kwanmuang said eight types of venues will be allowed to resume operations, including restaurants outside department stores and supermarkets, public and private parks, hair salons and barbershops, golf courses and driving ranges as well as sports venues for running, tennis and badminton.
Markets, clinics and pet grooming businesses are also in the list.
"The reopening date will correspond to the one that Thailand's Centre for COVID-19 Situation Administration will announce in a day or two," Mr Pongsakorn said on Wednesday, following a meeting with the Bangkok Communicable Disease Committee.
According to Mr Pongsakorn, operators who will benefit from Bangkok's relaxation of its disease control measures will be required to follow various regulations to ensure hygiene and reduce risks of the COVID-19 transmission.
At restaurants, for instance, body temperature screening will be required before entry. Customers will be seated at least 1.5m from one another and no alcohol consumption or live bands will be allowed.
Toilets will need cleaning every hour while tables and chairs will have to be disinfected every time after each use. Air-conditioned eateries will have to open their doors and windows every two hours for cleaning and ventilation.
"Restaurant employees must tie their hair and wear gloves, caps, aprons, face masks and face shields. Any employee feels unwell, has a fever, cough or has a body temperature of 37.5 degrees Celsius or higher must stop working and see a doctor," Mr Pongsakorn said, adding that restaurants inside department stores and supermarkets are not included in the partial relaxation.
For hair salons and barbershops, only cut, shampoo and blow-dry will be allowed.
Customers will be required to make a reservation in advance as queuing will not be allowed at the venue. Disinfection of equipment will have to take place after each use and each service can only last up to two hours before a cleaning break of at least 20 minutes.
As for parks, Mr Pongsakorn said they can be used for exercises that do not require social gathering such as running and cycling. Football, basketball, aerobic dance or tai chi practice will not be allowed due to potential risks of infection.
On Wednesday, Thailand reported nine new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 2,947. So far, 2,665 patients have been discharged from hospitals and 54 have died. Thailand has been reporting single-digit increase in daily new cases since Monday.
SEOUL (BLOOMBERG) - For about as long as North Korea has existed, Kim Pyong Il has been considered a possible successor to the throne. And now, with his nephew Kim Jong Un's health status unclear, his name is being bandied about again.
Mr Kim Pyong Il, 65, is the last known surviving son of North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung. After losing out in the 1970s to his half-brother, Kim Jong Il - who ended up running the country from 1994 to 2011 - Mr Kim Pyong Il spent about four decades overseas in diplomatic posts including in Hungary, Bulgaria, Finland, Poland and the Czech Republic before returning to Pyongyang last year.
Although Mr Kim Pyong Il has been effectively sidelined - he was largely purged from state media and never developed enough power back home to mount a serious challenge for leadership - some North Korea watchers say he could end up taking over from the 36-year-old Kim Jong Un, who hasn't named a successor. This is mainly because he has Kim blood, and he's a man.
The conservative male leaders in Pyongyang would resist giving power to Ms Kim Yo Jong - Mr Kim Jong Un's younger sister who has been by his side helping to make policy the past few years - according to Mr Thae Yong Ho, who was North Korea's deputy ambassador to the UK before he defected to South Korea in 2016. That's due to her gender and relatively young age of 30.
"The problem is that a Kim Yo Jong-led North Korea is unlikely to be sustainable," Mr Thae said, warning that collective leadership with her as the figurehead could lead to chaos. "To avoid this, some in the leadership would try to bring back Kim Pyong Il, who's now under house arrest, to the centre of the power."
Others don't think Mr Kim Pyong Il has a chance. South Korean ruling party lawmaker Kim Byeong-ki, a member of Parliament's intelligence committee, said on Sunday on social media that there was no indication he could possibly succeed Mr Kim Jong Un if the leader were incapacitated: "I laugh off these theories."
North Korea has often exiled those who fall out of favour, sending them abroad in attempts to erase their influence, but also providing a financial lifeline that keeps them dependent on Pyongyang's rulers.
If Mr Kim Pyong Il took power, it could put a great number of the current top leadership in jeopardy after they spent decades working to suppress his influence. When Mr Kim Jong Un took power after his father's death in 2011, he soon eliminated potential rivals: He executed his uncle and one-time deputy, Mr Jang Song Thaek, and was suspected to have ordered the assassination of his exiled older half-brother, Mr Kim Jong Nam, in Malaysia.
The fact that Mr Kim Pyong Il survived the purges in the ruling family may indicate that Mr Kim Jong Un never saw him as a credible rival, keeping him in the foreign service and at arm's length for years. In 2015, he was named North Korea's ambassador to the Czech Republic and was given extra protection in 2017 when Mr Kim Jong Nam was murdered.
Mr Kim Pyong Il kept a low profile while he was in Europe, though he still made an impression. Mr Lubomir Zaoralek, who was the Czech Republic's foreign affairs minister from 2014 through 2017, said "his style and manner were as if he had come from South Korea".
"You could see that he was established in Europe and that he has lived his life here," Mr Zaoralek said. "He was always careful in what he had to say, but it always made perfect sense. And it seemed that he lived a much freer life here than other North Koreans."
Mr Kim Pyong Il returned to Pyongyang last November, so that Mr Kim Jong Un could keep a closer watch on him, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing intelligence sources.
He has been the subject of speculation for decades in South Korea in unverified reports about family intrigue, often including house arrests and attempted assassinations. Before his years abroad, he served in the army, commanding an elite body guard unit, and also was appointed to posts in the ruling party, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry.
His mother Kim Song Ae - the second wife of the state founder - was influential in the 1970s and pushed for Mr Kim Pyong Il to take power. But she soon fell out of favour after Mr Kim Jong Il was named successor.
Mr Kim Pyong Il is largely seen as a contender this time by those who discount Ms Kim Yo Jong due to her age and gender, according to Ms Rachel Minyoung Lee, a former North Korea analyst with the United States government.
"It is highly unlikely that he has the connections or the support base he needs to be the next North Korean leader," she said. "Kim Yo Jong has a special status in the regime, and I think in this case, her connection to the Kim family trumps her gender."
KUALA LUMPUR: When Mel Youlanda had fever and severe gastric pain one evening, she feared that she had contracted COVID-19.
She wanted to head to the nearest hospital to get tested or at least see a doctor at a nearby clinic, but she simply could not.
The 41-year-old from Sabah lives in Menara City One condominium, one of Malaysia’s designated COVID-19 red zones.
The apartment complex, located in Kuala Lumpur’s city centre, has been placed under enhanced movement control order (MCO) since Mar 30 after a resident who was linked to the Sri Petaling Mosque tabligh gathering cluster tested positive for COVID-19.
So far, a total of 54 COVID-19 cases have been reported at the condominium and one resident, a Pakistani national, has died. The rest of the residents like Youlanda have been forced to remain inside their apartment units for the last month.
The area is tightly guarded by armed police and army personnel patrolling the condominium entrances to ensure that no unauthorised personnel come into the area and residents do not leave.
“I am scared. Everybody is afraid,” she said in a phone interview with CNA.
“When I was sick, I had to call the condominium management, and it was late at night so they told me I had to wait until 8am the next day to see a doctor,” she recounted.
NO ACCESS TO 24/7 MEDICAL SERVICES
She explained that all residents who wanted to see a doctor were told they could only do so between 8am and noon each day at the ground floor.
“My pain at my stomach was bad so I pleaded for a doctor but they insisted that I only come down the next morning,” she recounted.
“I’m worried because what if this was a real emergency, would we still need to wait until the next day? It’s a nightmare, I don’t know what else to say,” she added.
Mel Youlanda received medication after seeing the doctor the next morning. But before that, she had to endure severe gastric pain for more than 12 hours. (Photo: Mel Youlanda)
She eventually met the doctor the following morning and got medication to treat her stomach flu. However, some of her other neighbours with more pressing needs for medical care were not so lucky.
Youlanda recalled how one of her close friends, who lived on a different floor, ended up giving birth at the condominium’s lift lobby due to a delay in emergency medical services arriving.
The woman had called for an ambulance at 6.30am after her water bag burst but it only arrived at 8am, she claimed.
All entrances at Menara City One are guarded by armed personnel. (Photo: Menara City One - People's Voice/ Facebook)
“If we were not under lockdown, someone could have driven her to the hospital but all the residents were locked in. So, she gave birth downstairs while waiting for the ambulance,” she said.
“We need the health ministry to take this seriously. Although we are quarantined, we cannot be denied access to emergency health care services.”
She stressed that it was important for residents to have access to doctors 24 hours a day, especially since the residents are at risk of contracting COVID-19.
NO FRUITS, VEGETABLES OR FRESH MEAT
Youlanda lives with five other people in her condominium unit, including two children. All of them are tenants of the unit.
She highlighted that one of the biggest issuse she and her housemates face is that they have not been able to consume wholesome and healthy meals since the enhanced MCO was enforced.
As they are not able to do their own groceries, she said that they would collect food supplies distributed by the authorities. But the supplies mainly comprised uncooked rice, flour, sugar, eggs, canned sardine and instant noodles.
Each apartment unit is required to send a volunteer to the seventh floor to collect grocery supplies provided by government officials. (Photo: Mel Youlanda)
“We had hoped for vegetables, fruits like papayas or bananas, chicken and fresh fish but we got none of this. There’s no point having many plates of rice when there’s no wholesome dishes to accompany them,” she said.
“My stomach would get upset after every meal, eating the same thing. And with instant noodles, it’s just not healthy to be eating them on a regular basis."
As there was no variety in the food provided, she and her housemates would have only one “proper meal” a day, usually comprising rice, eggs and sardine. For the rest of the day, they make do with bread or biscuits.
When asked if she could make requests for the officials to help make specific purchases for the residents, Youlanda said it was difficult to convey these requests as face-to-face communication was restricted to limit the spread of COVID-19.
A sample of a meal provided comprising of rice, some vegetables and sambal. (Photo: Mel Youlanda)
“Beside fruits and vegetables, I’d also like to request for things like shampoo, soap and detergent to keep me and my house clean. But I’m not so sure how we can convey this to the officials,” she added.
She stated that whenever the authorities were distributing food supplies, only one person from each household was allowed to leave the unit to collect them. Moreover, in her experience, the officials did not have much time to take requests from individual units to purchase specific groceries.
Earlier this month, Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that food will be provided for residents held within enhanced MCO premises.
Additionally, he maintained that all residents will be able to obtain essential items by placing a request with the operations centre within the premises.
OVERCROWDING OF RESIDENTS A CONCERN
Overcrowding of residents at Menara City One condominium at centralised locations recently gained national attention, after photos of residents queueing in line to be tested for COVID-19 went viral on social media.
In the photos, the residents were seen standing shoulder to shoulder in long queues.
Speaking in a press conference on Saturday (Apr 25), Malaysian Health Ministry director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said the overcrowding at the condominium was a concern. He noted that the implementation of the testing could have been improved to ensure that residents practiced social distancing.
He added that residents were told to come down in batches. However, in a statement reported by local media, condominium residents and the management committee maintained that health ministry officials had demanded that they come down together at once for screening.
When asked, Youlanda said that residents in her unit were luckily not among those who were asked to be tested. However, she still fears that she may be tested positive.
“I heard news that one by one of our neighbours had tested positive, and one person I know is in critical condition. It’s not easy to live like this,” she said.
To take her mind off the stressful situation, she would clean her house, surf the internet and talk to her housemates.
She works for a law firm but she admitted that her job is the least of her concerns at the moment.
“I haven’t been able to do any work while in quarantine, so I don’t think I’ll be getting the full salary for this coming month. But I don’t really know, I have not been in contact with my superiors since the MCO,” she said.
What she looks forward to most is being able to buy her own necessities, when the restrictions are eventually lifted.
The Menara City One condominium was placed under enhanced movement control order from Mar 30. (Photo: Polis KL/Facebook)
Malaysia’s nationwide MCO, which began on Mar 18, has since been extended until May 12.
However, she admitted that it would be “wishful thinking” to assume that the enhanced MCO on Menara City One condominium would be lifted together with the nationwide MCO.
“I think we’ve got a long way to go before freedom. The number of cases here is still above 50. If more people get discharged and hopefully there are no more new cases, we can look forward to it,” she said.
