ENTERING its fifth month of movement controls in their various iterations, Malaysia is slowly but surely beginning to suffer from lockdown fatigue.

Though our Covid-19 tally is relatively low at 9,023 as of yesterday, anecdotal evidence suggests that clusters, however small, still exist in the community. This is exacerbated by findings that a large proportion of patients are asymptomatic, making the protection of vulnerable groups like the elderly a continued priority.

Negligent behaviour born of either sheer selfishness or wilful ignorance should be punished or made an example of. For example, the Sivagangga cluster wouldn’t have occurred had the index case obeyed his home-quarantine order. Worse still, the restaurant at the heart of the outbreak didn’t utilise the MySejahtera app, making contact tracing among patrons a nightmare.

After five months, the government has seen the wisdom of making mask-wearing mandatory in public and the contact-tracing app uniform. People shouldn’t view this as a burden; after all, such measures are to protect them.

Businesses owe it to their customers to inform them should there be an outbreak involving the premises, just as how we owe it to each other to act responsibly.

At the same time, several things need to be looked at. As some in the government hope to gradually reopen the country’s borders to save the economy, a step-by-step approach can be considered, starting with allowing selected entry points to serve this purpose. Also, there has to be a containment plan in the event of new infections.

With the manageable number of daily cases of late, the authorities can take the opportunity to replenish emergency stocks and conduct zoning exercises or even drills.

The burden of treating the disease should be shared with private healthcare facilities, and the Health Ministry can assist by publishing and enforcing the necessary protocols, and allowing drugs and equipment to be imported to ensure preparedness. What’s left in the Covid-19 screening fund supported by major insurance companies can be topped up and expanded to cover this as well.

In the current period of relative safety, help and guidance should be rendered to companies that were ill-equipped to handle the virus crisis the first time around so that they are better able to weather a potential fresh wave, especially businesses involving close contact or crowds, among them gyms and amusement parks.

The manufacturing and production sectors, meanwhile, can work on their inventory and output control, as well as logistics arrangements.

Agencies involved in social security should undertake Covid-19 prevention and education efforts among B40 folk and marginalised groups while looking after their basic needs, including making sure they have an adequate supply of masks and sanitiser.

Identifying alternative import and export targets to boost our food and economic security, and making the economy as a whole more scalable and nimble are a great way to pull through the next two to three years as we emerge from the pandemic. – August 6, 2020.

* Emmanuel Joseph firmly believes that Klang is the best place on Earth, and that motivated people can do far more good than any leader with motive.

* 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.