COMMENT | It’s a good thing that this government, when it comes to controlling Covid-19, listens to our very competent and able Health director-general. If it doesn’t and if politicians take matters into their own hands, all the gods we pray to will not be able to help us from their crass stupidity and their need to control.

When the PM announced that the movement control order or MCO was extended to April 28, it did not come as a shock to us. We all expected it because we needed more time to tell if the measures taken were having an impact. Why, we did not even rush to the supermarkets.

And then came the announcement by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) after the PM’s announcement on Friday - hairdressers are among the list of essential services that could open! A more ridiculous move could not have been imagined. There are few things which have closer proximity than having your hair cut - the barber’s face is literally inches away from yours. Even if he has a mask on, it won’t save you.

Barbers had more sense than Miti and many refused to open. If a barber cuts 20 heads a day and one of them infects him with Covid-19, it’s a pretty good chance he will give a viral overload to all his other customers. Before he is discovered to have Covid-19 himself, say 15 days later, he would infect some 300 people. Which is why the Health DG was aghast - won’t you and I be too? But strangely, why not Miti?

After tabligh-style gatherings, few things can be more potent than a barbershop with an infected hairdresser. Multiply that by a few thousand and what do you have in your hands? An unmitigated disaster. How could Miti not have seen...