Malaysia is bracing itself for a lockdown for two weeks as its government fights to bring down a spiraling number of coronavirus cases.
The decision to stop social and economic activities from June 1 comes after new infections went past 8,000 on Friday for the first time.
The country’s health ministry announced on Saturday an even higher number of cases—9,020 within the previous 24 hours in the fifth straight day of record new infections, taking the total number of cases to 558,534, Free Malaysia Today reported.
There were 61 reported COVID deaths on Friday, taking the total for the country to 2,552.
Earlier in May, the government announced a partial lockdown until June 7 but stopped short of closing businesses.
However, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Friday that all businesses would be closed except for essential services from June 1 to 14.
If there were a drop in cases some economic sectors could reopen in the second phase, which would last four weeks.
“With the latest rise in daily cases showing a drastically upward trend, hospital capacity across the country to treat COVID-19 patients are becoming limited,” he said in a statement.
The government introduced a state of emergency in January to curb the spread of the virus, suspending parliament and essentially putting an end to political activities.
It has also introduced around 300 billion ringgit ($72.60 billion) of stimulus.
Muhyiddin said that his government would boost the healthcare system and increase the number of vaccinations although critics say that the rollout of jabs has been slow, Reuters reported.
As of Thursday, around 1.7 million people had received at least one dose of a vaccine in the country of around 33 million.
Meanwhile, senior minister Ismail Sabri said during the Eid festival, ethnic Malay Muslims violated COVID-19 rules banning them from visiting each other, adding that 24 clusters over the period were detected with 850 confirmed cases, the Associated Press reported.
On Saturday the ministry of home affairs announced that 70,000 troops would be deployed around the country to enforce the lockdown.
Home affairs minister Hamzah Zainudin urged people not to try to escape from the cities to villages ahead of the lockdown, the newspaper Sinar Harian reported.
This was echoed by health director general, Noor Hisham Abdullah, who warned that people breaching the ban on interstate and intra-district travel were putting the health system at risk.
“Spreading the disease from one place to another does not help us in our fight to curb the pandemic from spreading,” he said in a statement, according to the Malay Mail.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department will disinfect 284 locations throughout the country, with a focus on Selangor which has recorded the highest number of new daily cases.
“More aggressive action must be taken and the sites to be covered include housing areas, markets and so forth. It is hoped that this effort will help reduce the spread of Covid-19 in the state,” housing and local government minister Zuraida Kamaruddin told reporters, according to the Malay Mail.
Newsweek has contacted Malaysia’s ministry of home affairs for comment.
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