Malaysians were given a rude awakening yesterday following reports that the government was mulling further economic curbs should the number of Covid-19 cases increase despite the movement control order (MCO).

Although EU-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Eurocham Malaysia) has clarified that the touted Feb 4 deadline was for illustrative purposes, mitigating a "full shutdown" has been on the minds of some industry managers who reached out to Malaysiakini on whether it was a possibility.

This was in view of the fact that after 13 days of MCO, the number of new Covid-19 cases do not appear to be on the downtrend, even despite the Health Ministry implementing a new directive to reduce testing of close contacts to Covid-19 positive individuals...