Who would have thought?

By Nurin Camela Shaik Abdul Malik Moe

Who would willingly live in an era where a deadly virus pandemic is spreading across the globe like wildfire? Surprisingly, we are currently going through a worldwide pandemic called Covid-19 that has caused thousands to have lost their lives.This virus is an infectious disease under the coronavirus group such as MERS or SARS and is lethal once inflicted upon humans. Originally, it arose in Wuhan, China specifically traced from the Hubei province wet market where exotic animals such as bats, pangolins and snakes are sold. These animals are a high risk carrier of many diseases and can transmit the disease once in contact with open wounds and ingested. The disease is known to be contracted easily by contact with objects a person has once held or through water droplets from the mouth of an infected person. Hence, it is highly infectious and can exist in any designated area.

The disease was officially declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern as it is an outbreak that has surpassed 900,000 cases and many countries have been affected.Moreover, the disease causes respiratory illness with symptoms such as a cough, fever, and in more severe cases, difficulty in breathing. Due to this disease being recently discovered, there is no vaccine available to treat it causing the number of deaths to skyrocket.

However, medical workers have been putting in their blood, sweat and tears into working the extra mile to ensure that patients who have been admitted to hospitals obtain the best care possible to combat the disease. Patients that come out positive with Covid 19 more often than not are given medical attention towards their symptoms and are not treated fully for the virus as there are no existing vaccines. To illustrate, patients that are in critical condition are hooked up to ventilators to assist them in breathing as the only way to cure the virus is for the antibody to fight it off.

On the contrary, the public’s reaction towards this virus was very panic ridden as they began to stockpile on basic necessities such as hand sanitizer, food and soap. In desperate times calls for desperate measures and as the virus started spreading like wildfire, the Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has initiated the Restriction of Movement Order (RMO) towards the public. This movement emphasizes the restriction of the public from having mass gatherings such as parties, meetings or religious activities to cease the spread of the virus to healthy individuals. Besides that, this movement also calls for social distancing which is an act of maintaining a physical distance between people and reducing the number of times people come into close contact with each other by keeping a 6 feet radius from each other. In addition, when in need of purchasing necessities, only one person per family is allowed to proceed to supermarkets and wet markets to avoid congestion and avoid from stockpiling.

Economically, the virus has taken a toll on countries by obstructing a myriad of working industries such as tourism, business and entertainment. As the virus prevents mass gatherings to avoid the outspread of the virus, these industries have been placed under complete closure. In particular, small businesses had to shut down and most workers were placed under a temporary unemployed status. Although these workers are facing temporary unemployment the government has provided a substantial amount of money to ensure that basic necessities are taken care of such as food and essentials. These basic essentials can ensure that the people can survive the quarantine under no circumstances and flatten the curve of escalation in the amount of people who have been tested positive for the virus.However, this does not ignore the fact that the economy is depleting as these industries were the main contributor towards our country and the absence of it has caused the growth to contract.

All in all, the government has been at their wits’ end in containing the virus by contacting resources in other countries to obtain the best of medical care ensuring that these patients can recover fully. As a member of society we must abide by the regulations set by the government and focus at the crux of the matter that is the society itself. For years our world has suffered a fair amount of deadly viruses such as the Spanish flu or the Black plague hence, we must not repeat history and contain the virus by obliging all safety measures. Just like the saying an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, we must establish a shield of protection on ourselves and propagate it to society to ensure that we can survive this pandemic.

A Covid 19 Narrative

By AISYAH NABILA BINTI NAHAR

I could tell there was something wrong by the time I saw my father scrunching his eyebrows to the point where both of his eyebrows combined into a unibrow. He squinted his brown eyes to see his phone screen more clearly. His pupils dilated as his eyes shifted upwards and downwards on the screen, as if he was reading the same message over and over again. "What's wrong papa?", I asked him as he got up from his wooden study chair. "Oh, it's nothing. Say Aisyah, have you seen your mother anywhere?”, he asked. I pointed towards the wet kitchen at the back of our house, where I momentarily saw my mother walk to. She was getting ready to cook our dinner. As his eyes followed the direction of my forefinger, he walked quickly towards my mother, with quite a disturbing face. ‘What could be the problem?’, I thought to myself while tilting my head slightly in confusion. My father rarely worried about anything. Even my flopping grades during my final exam last year did not worry him at all. What seems to be the problem to the extent that he looked so flustered after reading a text message?

I quietly tiptoed my way to the kitchen, where my parents were. I heard distant whispers that gradually became clearer as I came closer to the designated scene. It seemed like my parents were having a very serious conversation. My father was reading something from his phone to my mother. My mother’s eyebrows scrunched the same way as my father’s did earlier. I took an inch closer to hear what they were discussing, but at a safe distance so they would not see me. “He was there, he was there during the tabligh, and he tested positive”, my father said to my mother. “He said it himself, look!”, my father showed his phone once again to my mother. At this point, I was still comprehending why they both were worried. I was about to return back to the living room until I heard my mother asking when my father met his friend. “A week ago” I halted my steps. “I made salaam with him, but I washed my hands right after with soap”. After my father said those words, I finally got my answer. He was worried about his own health, not his friend’s health. He was now a COVID-19 suspect. How could this happen? I did not know what to do with this new information I received. My neurons were not connecting to each other. I was too shocked to the point that my legs felt weak.

Was this our fate? Was this the end? Am I a suspect too? Many thoughts circulated in my head. So what were we supposed to do now? We never experienced a pandemic before, and we did not expect our own family to experience it first-hand. We were unprepared. I had seen some posts about COVID-19 but I never had the chance to read them thoroughly. I only skimmed through the words, and the only thing I got from my reading was the number of cases and deaths rising in Malaysia. The chances of me and my whole family catching the disease was dangerously high, as we have contact with our father, the head of the family everyday. Well of course it cannot be questioned, as he lives with us too. Since then, while waiting for the test results to come out, my father has been confined in the spare bedroom near the kitchen, he creeps out only when he needs to go to the bathroom. He does not eat his meals with us, nor does he tuck my little brother to sleep anymore, like he usually does. The wooden bedroom door stays firmly shut to keep anyone else other than father himself from entering. No one went out of the house. Instead, our groceries and daily needs were delivered to our home. Our daily lives took a 180 degree turn.

The next week, my father’s body temperature started to rise. At night, he kept waking up with chills, along with aches over his muscles. We started to worry more. The symptoms were showing. I knew I could not deny the fact that my father, my hero, could get sick too, but I did not want to accept it. Our doctor called three days later to say my father’s test was positive, but the rest were negative. I was kind of shocked to hear that me, my mother and my brother were not infected, considering that we did have contact with my father before knowing he had been infected. After hearing the call, I followed my mother to the little bedroom that my father quarantined himself in. I peeked through the window from the kitchen and found my father lying on his side on the small single bed, reading an article about the surge in confirmed cases. He read stories about people being hospitalized, people being put in ventilators to breathe, people dying, sick with the virus that was attacking his immune system from the inside. I could see the worry glooming in his eyes. I wanted to hug him and say that he will be alright, that he will be safe, but I felt useless. I felt terrible that I could not even comfort my own father. Tears of sadness were pooling in my eyes. I had never felt this hopeless before.

The following day, the hospital workers came to collect my father. My mother already packed clothes and all my father’s necessities, of course with extra care. We waited inside, with a safe distance from my father, as he took his heavy steps towards the ambulance van. Another van came, bringing sterilization products to eliminate all forms of the bacteria in our house. We waved goodbye goodbye to our father and my brother sent him a homemade ‘get well soon papa’ card that he made himself. With one last glance, I mouthed ‘Stay strong papa, you can do it’. My father returned my words with a subtle smile and mouthed back ‘I will, promise me you won’t cry’. Shortly after, we were sent to a nearby hotel, while waiting for the sterilization process. Fortunately, it took less than a day for our house to be sterilized. We were safe to go back home. After the day they took my father away, we facetimed with him every night. I could see he was getting better. He complained about how terrible the food was and how he missed my mother’s cooking so much. I told him that I had started taking cooking as a hobby and I have started to help out my mother in the kitchen, taking his place while he was away. His face lit up and he was delighted to hear the good news. Everyday I wake up wondering when my father will come back home. Every night I cry to myself in my prayers thinking about how lonely my father would feel without us by his side. ‘I’m sorry I didn’t keep my promise father, but I’m sure you’ll get healthy soon’.