COMMENT | On the last day of 2020, Malaysia recorded its highest daily case of Covid-19 with 2,525 cases. It was a poetic end to a year that has brought much misery and bad news to the world, and to the nation as a whole. But more bad news followed in 2021.

On Jan 4, the culminating Covid-19 positive cases in Malaysia breached the 120,000-mark. It was also reported that Covid-19 related deaths went beyond 500, with eight more deaths reported on Jan 5. In total, in the first five days of 2021, 38 people have died due to the coronavirus.

All these numbers make for very grim reading. To think, that just a few months ago we were well on the road to recovery, with zero local infections in the middle of 2020. Where did it all go wrong?..