Written by Hariz Mohd
The National Recovery Council's (NRC) recommendation that Malaysia's borders should be reopened fully to all countries as early as next month has triggered concerns among several pandemic experts.
They warned that doing so when the Omicron wave is expected to be peaking may lead to an overload of positive Covid-19 cases in the country and risk overwhelming Malaysia's healthcare system.
"I don't think our borders should be fully opened by early March, as the Omicron surge is expected to peak in March.
"The borders should only open after the Omicron surge is flattened in order not to further burden our healthcare resources," Dr Moy Foong Ming told Malaysiakini when contacted yesterday.
Moy is a professor in epidemiology at the Centre of Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Practice, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya.
Two days ago, NRC chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin told a press conference that they suggested Malaysia's borders be fully opened to all countries as early as March 1 without requiring travellers to undergo compulsory quarantine and rely on double testing before departure and upon arrival in Malaysia.
Muhyiddin said the recommendation was made in the interest of Malaysia's economic recovery and because it is difficult to ban only certain countries since the Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus has been detected throughout the world.
However, Moy argued that fully reopening the borders for economic recovery may inflict further damages if the number of Covid-19 cases spikes.
"The opening of borders is to boost the tourism and economy sectors. Although Omicron is already in our community, if the international travellers come in with the virus, they may spread the virus to locals and increase the surge further.
"This may affect our economic sectors if too many people are infected and need to be quarantined. There will be a shortage of workers, which will affect the economy," she said.
'Repeat of past mistake'
Public health policy researcher Dr Lim Chee Han, meanwhile, described the suggestion as an adoption of the "European way" in handling border control.
He warned that the country may pay a high price should it decide to rely on testing alone, without imposing mandatory quarantine on travellers.
"I wonder when will they learn that health is wealth? If people seriously still want to come or return to Malaysia, quarantine them for at least five days. Why should it be a big deal?
"If the government wants to do it the European way, then prepare to suffer like their (European) healthcare system and pay the social cost," he said.
Lim said reopening Malaysia's borders when the country is facing the Omicron wave may also lead to a repeat of what transpired in December 2020.
This was when the country saw spikes in the number of cases when the government decided to reopen state borders, a decision Lim described as "premature".
"The measure is also not wise as it encourages Malaysian family members abroad to come back while it is probably riskier here.
"At the same time, many Omicron cases are actually imported cases. The move to open borders means that the government is prepared to let Omicron viruses overload and dominate in the local transmission.
"I am not too sure how leaky the two PCR tests are to prevent more imported cases as such," Lim said.
Read the full article here: https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/610300
BM translated article: https://m.malaysiakini.com/news/610326
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