Oh No! Full MCO Lockdown, Oxygen Running Out?, Tajuddin Terminated as Prasarana CEO and This Week’s News
This week boasted some big news coming out of the current Covid-19 news in Malaysia with the announcement of the full MCO lockdown starting from 1 June 2021, oxygen services for healthcare sector at risk and the termination of Tajuddin as the CEO of Prasarana after his handling of the LRT collision accident. Other news include the worrying high inflation in the United States and the cryptocurrency market collapse.
Full MCO Lockdown: Malaysia to go through full MCO lockdown from 1 June to 14 June 2020. (News Source Here)
The increases in Covid-19 cases this past week has meant that drastic measures need to be taken to contain the spread of the pandemic. Covid-19 cases yesterday reached its highest peak of 9,020 cases. At this rate, Malaysia is at the brink of losing control of the situation as it has even been worse than India’s situation.
Malaysia’s government will be attempting to mitigate the pandemic crisis by implementing a 3 phase nationwide lockdown starting on 1 Jun 2021.
- First Phase, Full Lockdown (1 Jun — 14 Jun 2021): All economic sectors with the exception of essential sectors will be closed.
- Second Phase Partial Lockdown (If full lockdown successful, 4 weeks): Some economic sectors that doesn’t involve large gatherings will be allowed to open.
- Third Phase Current SOPs (after second phase): Most economic sectors allowed to open and SOPs similar to recovery MCO.
This is expected to have another detrimental effect on the Malaysian economy, but the good news is that vaccination is now currently underway with about 3.4% of the population fully vaccinated. However, it remains to be seen whether the full lockdown will be effective in controlling the pandemic. I say this because when the full lockdown was implemented last year, it was under the context of relatively lower Covid-19 cases. The context today is different in that Covid-19 cases and infectivity is high among the communities, with much more infection clusters.
Oxygen Running Out?: Oxygen services and equipment are under threat in the Malaysian healthcare system (News Source Here)
Guardian ran an article highlighting the vulnerabilities of some countries in the world running out of oxygen supplies if Covid-19 cases keep increasing. Malaysia was one of the countries being highlighted here along with the top countries of Argentina, India, and Iran. After this news, the Malaysian government has come out and clarified that they have enough oxygen supplies currently and that suppliers could produce 5 times the current demand of oxygen.
So exactly who requires oxygen ventilation? According to MOH guidelines, patients that need Intensive Care Unit (ICU) treatment are the ones that usually need oxygen ventilation. Specifically, patients that have pneumonia that needs oxygen, and are critically ill. My take is that we shouldn’t worry about the oxygen supplies in the nation but rather the capacity of ICU beds considering that the new strains are much more deadly and infectious. The demand for ICU beds is high, and supply is low, as there are currently only 1,114 ICU beds. Rate of use exceeds 100% which means that many patients who need ICU services are still being treated in normal patient beds. Noor Hisham has also highlighted that the current healthcare system is significantly strained and is in dangers of being overwhelmed.
Tajuddin Terminated as CEO of Prasarana: Tajuddin has been terminated as CEO after the LRT debacle. (News Source Here)
Tajuddin Abdul Rahman has been terminated as the CEO of Prasarana after botching the handling of the LRT accident this week. The lack of sensitivity and empathy he displayed in the press conference sealed the end of his tenure in Prasarana. He was also deemed arrogant and allegedly said a racist remark to a Chinese reporter in the press conference. There were about 47 people seriously injured and 200 over sustaining minor injuries.
I mean like how much can we meme his press conference of “I know lah, I came very early you know, I need to take my vaccination also I come here. Apa guna I come early? I kena tegur you reporters”. So here’s a meme instead on his firing.
High Inflation in the United States: Could the FED be looking at increasing interest rates? (News Source Here)
Consumer prices jumped 4.2% in the United States in Apr 2021, its biggest increase since the 2007/2008 financial crisis. Investors are worried that the FED might be looking at increasing interest rates as they have a 2.0% inflation target to maintain. An increase in the interest rates could be disastrous at this point as it will reduce consumption and investment in an economy that is still fragile at this point.
My take is that the FED will probably only increase interest rates if inflation is persistently above 2.0% for another 2 to 3 months, and when 2Q GDP data comes out in Aug 2021. If 2Q GDP data indicates a much better economy, then the FED will increase interest rates. If not, they might be more inclined to just maintain the interest rate. After all, the FED has traditionally been more tilted towards stimulating growth rather than adhere to the 2% inflation target.
What do you think? Do you think FED will increase interest rates?
Cryptocurrency Collapse: Cryptocurrency market crashed because of Elon Musk (News Source Here)
I am sure you have heard the massacre in the cryptocurrency market the last 2 weeks. Bitcoin prices declined from its peak of $60,000 in early May 2021, to as low as $34,000 level by the end of May. Losses were as much as $1.3 trillion in the market and this was because Elon Musk said that they will not be using Bitcoin and he said that crypto mining was bad for the environment.
What do I think about it? Well … this is the nature of cryptocurrencies. You reap what you buy. It is volatile — yes. It is risky — yes. One day, you can be a millionaire, the next you are penniless. This is the reality of investing in cryptocurrencies. There are real world usage for cryptocurrencies but let’s face it, most of the investors in cryptocurrencies don’t even know what are the real life applications of it and are simply in it to speculate.
BitCoin Price (May 2021)
