KUALA LUMPUR – The three-day closure of premises listed as potential Covid-19 hotspots by the government will have a grave financial impact on businesses that may last weeks, according to an industry leader.
Federation of Malaysian Business Associations adviser Datuk Ameer Ali Mydin said the inclusion of premises in the Hotspot Identification for Dynamic Engagement (HIDE) system would create fear among the public about visiting such locations.
This, he said, would not help business owners in trying to recover from what has already been an extremely challenging climate over the past year due to the pandemic.
“The minute you shut down a place and flag them in HIDE, the public will stop coming for weeks,” he told The Vibes here today. “As a consumer, if I see that Bangsar Village has been listed, for instance, obviously I would be more cautious about going there, maybe even up to a month.”
In a statement yesterday, Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had said that all premises listed in HIDE will be ordered to close for three days effective immediately, as the government further tightens its standard operating procedures amid worsening Covid-19 situation.
Yesterday, HIDE listed 152 locations at risk of becoming hotspots over a seven-day period, the majority of those in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor. Most of the premises identified are malls, markets, and stores.
However, based on the Health Ministry’s data from February 22 to April 2, only 4.78% of Covid-19 infections are from shopping premises. Factories are the largest contributor with 48.06%, followed by community spread (12.55%) and construction sites (11.56%).
Closure based on potential risk makes little sense
Ameer, who is also the Malaysia Retailers Association (MRA) vice-president and the Bumiputera Retailers Organisation (BRO) president, said he fails to understand the rationale behind the government’s decision to shut down potential hotspots for three days.
“Premises, and malls in particular, should only be shut down when several staff get infected, then it’s a fair closure.
“But HIDE is very pre-emptive, in that it tries to predict which locations will become clusters. And if the reason for closure is sanitisation, then we only need one day to do it, even for the biggest malls.”
Ameer said rather than closing down the premises, the government should use its data to identify where most of the at-risk individuals are from, and should the situation call for it, implement a lockdown in the related residential areas.
He also questioned if the country’s economy will be able to handle a large number of business premises shutting down, with the HIDE list being updated daily and more premises being added.
“If the government closes an Aeon mall in the area. The high-risk individuals who previously went there will now have to go Tesco or Mydin, for example. Now, these areas will also then be flagged in HIDE. What happens then? Might as well we just shut down the whole economy,” he said.
Grossly unfair, suspend HIDE, associations urge
In a joint statement yesterday, four associations – namely the Malaysia Shopping Malls Association, MRA, Malaysia Retail Chain Association, and BRO – urged the government to suspend any further announcements from HIDE, unless a clear, accurate and precise basis is given for the information released.
They claimed that the directive for closure is premature and will cause irreversible damage to perception and business recovery and survival. “This proposed closure should be held in abeyance until the data used in HIDE has been confirmed accurate and the hotspot locations are accurately identified.”
The associations said the first release of the HIDE information yesterday has immediately and unfairly created more uncertainty, panic, and fear. – The Vibes, May 9, 2021
