PETALING JAYA, Jan 12 (Sin Chew Daily) – His Majesty Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah has declared a state of emergency until August 1 to counter the current wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

As a matter of fact, Malaysia is not the first country to have declared a state of emergency to fight the virus.

According to Center for Civil and Political Rights (CCPR), a total of 79 countries have already declared state of emergency since the onset of the outbreak.

Countries that have declared state of emergency include Japan, Thailand, the Philippines, Italy, Spain, France, Argentina, the United States and Peru.

Some of these countries have extended the state of emergency due to persistently high infection numbers, while some have lifted the state of emergency after successfully flattened the curve. Some others are reintroducing the emergency decree following resurgence of cases.

Japan lifted the emergency decree imposed on several areas last April following improvement of the situation but declared a state of emergency again due to a spike of new cases later.

The same goes for some European countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Italy.

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia declared state of emergency last March. Thailand has since extended it several times.

Latin American countries like Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia and the United States have all declared emergency decrees to fight the coronavirus, as in Senegal, South Africa and Congo in Africa.