MP SPEAKS | The time has come for an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” strategy and approach to the war against the Covid-19 pandemic. 

This is as the record-high of 2,335 daily new Covid-19 infections yesterday is proof that the present strategy has failed to check the runaway surge in the third wave of the pandemic.

In fact, it shows that we are not very far from United States Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) projections of 2,987 daily new cases on Jan 1, 2021 and 5,379 infections on March 21.

The purpose of a model is to serve as a warning of the worst that can be expected and the need for urgent remedial measures to be taken. We should not be sitting targets.

The IHME model projected a continuous rise in Covid-19 cases in Malaysia until mid-March, hitting over 5,000 infections daily from Feb 25.

It predicted that the 2,987 daily new Covid-19 cases on Jan 1 would increase to 4,176 on Feb 1, and 5,130 on March 1. The trend is projected to rise until March 21 with 5,379 infections that day, and then decline to 5,301 on April 1.

Going by the IHME model, Malaysia’s cumulative total of Covid-19 cases at the end of March will be in the region of...