IT IS mind boggling that reports are coming in of traffic crawls on the PLUS Highway heading north and south as thousands attempt to balik kampung ahead of Hari Raya Aidilfitri weekend.

Perhaps special adviser to the prime minister on public health Dr Jemilah Mahmood was right to consider if a lockdown during Hari Raya Aidilfitri would be necessary as a preventative measure against a spike in Covid-19 cases in the country.

Even if she was thinking out loud, many would agree with her. Perhaps not the thousands who are in their ‘balik kampung’ rush, but the hundreds of thousands who signed an online petition to urge the government to immediately cancel the conditional movement control order (MCO) and to continue the MCO certainly would.

Perhaps, after six regulations to enforce the MCO, it’s time for the regulations to move away from their current shape and form.

The regulations may be modelled on those of the UK and Singapore.

It is basically a stay at home order unless movement is permitted by the regulations, which will include:

no person must permit any other individual to enter his place of residence for any reason other than as permitted under the regulations (which may be specified); and

the prohibition of social gatherings between persons not living in the same place of residence.

These should address medical experts’ fears that social gathering in a confined space may invite an unwelcome guest – an asymptomatic person.

Stay at home must be the new normal. Leaving one’s home only with reasonable excuse is another new normal. – May 22, 2020.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.