KUCHING: Social activist Voon Shiak Ni is not thrilled about the country reopening its international borders about now.
In responding to the National Recovery Council’s (NRC) proposal to fully reopen the country’s borders as early as March 1 and the mandatory quarantine to be lifted for all travellers heading to Malaysia, she said the timing was not right.
“As the Omicron threat looms, I personally do not think that it is a good time to open the international borders as the nation is bracing for an uptrend in Covid-19 cases.
“And the crucial issue is whether our hospital facilities have been adequately expanded and ready to cope with the surge in infections in the months to come,” she said in a statement on Wednesday (Feb 9).
She also questioned if the country is ready to cope with the five digit daily Covid-19 cases and able to avoid deaths especially for those with weaker immune systems, the sick and elderly.
“Health director-general Tan Sr Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has just stated with the infectivity rate standing at 1.20 now, Malaysia is expected to reach 22,000 cases daily by the end of March and has urged everyone to exercise their social responsibility to comply with all public health and social measures.
“The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also warned that the virus can be dangerous as it continues to evolve everyday and that WHO is watching and tracking the three variations of Omicron namely, BA.1.1, BA.2 and BA.3,” she said.
As such, Voon proposed that the opening of the country’s borders be put on hold for a few more months.
“As for Sarawak, I believe the Sarawak Government will delay the full opening of the state’s borders to travellers from overseas and keep the quarantine measures in place as we are seeing an uptrend in daily infection cases,” she said.
