THE Malaysia Retailers Association (MRA) has urged the government not to implement a full lockdown as it will cost irreparable damage to the economy, devastate businesses and stifle recovery efforts.

MRA president William Cheng said, however, that the association understood and concurred with the government on the need for stricter measures.

“We are strongly and firmly against a full lockdown as it will immediately destroy the already fragile economy and, as can be seen (from the example of) MCO 2.0 and 3.0, is not effective in curbing the spread of the virus.

“However, we support the implementation of a more stringent MCO in certain districts and states that have reported high cases of Covid-19 infections,” he said.

He said decisions to impose a full lockdown must take into consideration the interest of businesses and the preservation of livelihoods.

“In this regard, MRA would like to advocate the use of the MCO2.0 model, which allows economic sectors to operate, but with stricter compliance to existing SOP, stricter restrictions on peoples’ movement (while encouraging them) to stay home, (and) practicing Work From Home (WFH) for those businesses that are able to,” Cheng said.

He said the government must also accelerate the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme and put place priority on expediting the vaccination programme for the economic sector.

The government imposed MCO 3.0 nationwide from May 12 to June 7 to curb the spread of the virus. However, economic sectors are allowed to operate with tighter standard operating procedure. Social activities and restaurant dine-ins are prohibited.

Despite this, daily Covid-19 cases have been spiking, with the country registering a record 6,075 infections yesterday and 47 deaths the day before.

The nation is fast approaching the 500,000-caseload mark, with the number now standing at 485,496. The death toll is at 2,040. – May 20, 2021.