Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad says Malaysia should study carefully the gradual lifting of any measures including the movement control order imposed to slow the spread of Covid-19 with a trial-and-error approach. — Picture by Miera Zulyana

KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — Malaysia should study carefully the gradual lifting of any measures including the movement control order (MCO) imposed to slow the spread of Covid-19 with a trial-and-error approach, as there is no vaccine in sight yet, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

Dr Mahathir, a seasoned statesman who is also a trained doctor, said he believes that the Covid-19 outbreak will continue for a long time and that it would not be possible to pinpoint a certain month or timeframe when the MCO will be lifted.

He, however, suggested the careful relaxing of restrictions that are in place depending on studies and statistics, emphasising that success in handling and preventing the spread of Covid-19 infections would depend on individuals sticking to the necessary precautions.

“There is no one date where we can say we are already free, we can go back to normal. Because I believe that to handle this viral outbreak, there are some that we can bring forward, there are some that we can postpone, because some are easily exposed, while some work is not easily exposed,” he said during an online video interview that was broadcast “live” on his official Facebook page today.

Dr Mahathir said that examples of sectors or jobs that could be gradually allowed to resume are workplaces that do not involve many gathering at one location or where the work is carried out in isolation from others, while other controls are maintained such as the number of individuals allowed in supermarkets at any one time or carrying out ramadan bazaars online.

He also said whether or not industries can resume activities would depend on the situation, such as where activities are carried out using machines or robots without the involvement of humans, or for industries where the workers are few but spread out over a big location such as 100 workers in a five-acre workplace.

“So what will happen is that this outbreak will not end in one go, it will take time,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said care should be taken to study each of the measures taken against Covid-19 so far in Malaysia before considering the lifting of any such measures, namely the wearing of face masks, the practice of social distancing or staying one metre apart from each other, and staying at home except for essential activities.

He gave the hypothetical example of if Malaysians are to be allowed to leave their homes, saying that it would then have to be studied who could be allowed out and what effect it would have on statistics, further suggesting that such a scenario could see the measure of wearing mask being maintained while the measure of staying at home is lifted or gatherings are allowed.

“So each of these measures that we took to save ourselves have to be studied one by one, but we (can) end some, but maintain some of what we are doing. That will take time as we are in trial to determine the effectiveness of our measures. This requires our experts to monitor and observe, get the data and figures on what happens here or there and why,” he said.

Dr Mahathir cautioned against rushing to lift orders to stay home, noting that decisions to end lockdowns or orders for the public to stay at home could sometimes result in a sudden resurgence of new Covid-19 cases as seen in other countries.

“This is all by trial and error, if we see a measure is effective, ok. If we see that measure causes things to worsen, we have to cancel our decision,” he said.

When asked about his view of Malaysia using a contact tracing app in mobile phones like South Korea, Dr Mahathir again stressed the need for observation and sufficient studies.

“If we find that what we do does not give a negative effect, it's ok. But whatever we do, we have to be careful, just do one only, not simultaneously,” he replied.

When speaking about allowing Malaysians to go out and meet and work as usual, Dr Mahathir cautioned against it: “This virus does not know dates, it goes on as usual. It is only subject to the measures that we take, so that's why I say it will take time before we end everything that we are doing to stop the disease from spreading.”