When the Covid-19 virus landed in Malaysia, the public demanded immediate and decisive action from the government.

The then Pakatan Harapan government, facing public pressure, announced a travel ban on visitors from the Hubei province and it's capital Wuhan, where the virus originated and later expanded the ban to the neighbouring provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu in China.

Despite criticism, the government did well in containing the virus with only 22 cases recorded in Malaysia until the last weekend, all of whom have recovered.

And then, the 22-month-old government imploded.

Public attention shifted from the global crisis to the Sheraton Hotel in Petaling Jaya, where politicians from sides of the divide gathered as part of a series of manoeuvres intended to oust the Harapan government and replace it with a new coalition dubbed "Perikatan Nasional."

The coup attempt, referred to as the "Sheraton Move", did not succeed in installing a Perikatan Nasional government but it led to the dissolution of the Harapan government.

Five days on, a resolution remains elusive and the nation is still without a government.

During those six days of political turmoil, the global Covid-19 outbreak significantly worsened with a few governments around the world starting to lose control.

When the political conspirators gathered at the Sheraton Hotel on Sunday, the total number of Covid-19 cases in South Korea was 433, while Italy and Iran had 66 and 29 cases respectively.

Today, the number of cases in South Korea increased by almost five-fold to 2,022, while the cases in Italy and Iran shot up by almost ten-fold to 650 and 245 respectively.

The virus has paralysed China with unprecedented quarantining of entire cities, disrupting its production supply chain and damaging the economy.

Covid-19 is now in every continent except Antarctica

After more than 78,000 cases and almost 2,800 deaths in the country, China finally appears to be bringing the epidemic under control as the number of new cases decreased.

But elsewhere, countries are now facing the risk of the same painful experience that China had encountered.

Italy appears to have become a launchpad for the virus' spread into Europe.

French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday warned that Europe was on the brink of a Covid-19 epidemic as the number of cases in his country tripled from 12 to 38 since last Sunday.

Meanwhile, in the US, its Center for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that there is a Covid-19 patient of unknown origin.

"Unknown origin" means authorities do not know where the patient contracted the virus as the patient had no travel history to affected countries or contact with other known Covid-19 patients.

In other words, the virus could already be spreading in certain communities in the US without health authorities noticing. The cases in the US had almost doubled from 35 to 60 since last Sunday.

In the six days Malaysians were distracted by the "Sheraton Move", Covid-19 virus had reached another 22 countries, bringing the total affected countries and territories to 55.

In Malaysia, three new cases were recorded in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 25.

These include a 53-year-old Malaysian woman who had travelled to Japan recently, a Japanese citizen who travelled to Japan last month and Indonesia this month, and an Italian who just returned from a working trip to Italy.

Increasing risks from other Covid-19 affected countries

While the virus is still under control in Malaysia, the new cases highlight the increasing risk Malaysia is facing as more countries across the globe become affected.

All previous cases in Malaysia could be traced to Singapore or China. Japan, Italy and Indonesia are new additions.

In the absence of a health minister, Malaysiakini reached out to the communication departments of various agencies charged with keeping the Covid-19 virus at bay about the increasing risk posed by other countries but was given the runaround.

The National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) told Malaysiakini to refer to the Foreign Ministry, the Foreign Ministry asked to wait for an announcement from the Health Ministry while the Health Ministry said this was a matter for Nadma and the Foreign Ministry.

When contacted about the possibility to expand travel bans to certain areas of other countries badly affected by the Covid-19 virus such as South Korea, Italy and Iran, Health Ministry director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah (photo) said: "We are watching closely and a health travel advisory has been given".

"While we continue to strengthen the screening and surveillance in all our international points of entries, the public is reminded to take all precautionary measures like frequent hand washing and keeping good personal hygiene," he told Malaysiakini.

Noor Hisham added that further decisions will be made in time.

The director-general later released a statement announcing a travel ban on visitors from parts of South Korea and cautioned Malaysians against visiting areas badly affected by the Covid-19 virus in China, South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran.

Yesterday, interim Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad unveiled a RM20 billion economic stimulus plan to help Malaysia cushion the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Mahathir, in his speech, said Malaysia had previously experienced a similar situation during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) which slowed the country's gross domestic product growth but recovered after an economic stimulus package.

"God willing, the 2020 economic stimulus will be as successful," he said.

The Sars outbreak which broke out in 2002 infected 8,098 people and claimed 774 lives.

In contrast, Covid-19 has to date infected 83,272 and claimed 2,858 lives.