Sin Chew Daily

The coronavirus will remain the biggest crisis in this world in the new year. Even though vaccines are already available now and the vaccination programs have already started in dozens of countries worldwide, WHO says herd immunity against the virus is still a tall order this year, meaning nations still need to adopt a very cautious stance in the war against the virus.

Here in Malaysia, we must never take things for granted, especially in view of the escalating number of new daily infections of late.

We only have around a month before the Chinese New Year, but can we put the virus under control by then? Can we still go back to our hometowns to celebrate the big day as we used to do in all previous years? No one can answer such questions, and Chinese Malaysians, in particular, must be psychologically prepared for a very different CNY this year.

Although China has done tremendously well in containing the spread of the virus, the authorities still discourage the people from traveling home to celebrate the Spring Festival given the fact billion of trips would typically be made during the festive season every year.

Celebrating CNY away from home was unimaginable in the past, as it is a centuries-old tradition for Chinese people worldwide to go back for reunion with their families during the festive season, no matter how far we are away from home.

That said, such massive human movements will dramatically increase the infection risks and open up a window of opportunity for the virus to spread far and wide.

To flatten the curve, we have no choice but to drastically reduce human movements and contacts.

We need to adapt to the new normal under the scourge of the pandemic. While balik kampung to celebrate the big day is a time-honored tradition we all cherish, this will invariably expose us to great infection risks and we must therefore make the necessary adaptations to what we have been so much accustomed to.

The current two-week MCO 2.0 started on January 13 and will end on Jan 26. Health DG Dr Noor Hisham has said the MCO could be extended at most by another two weeks, meaning even if MCO is extended, it will end shortly before CNY, when Malaysians might be allowed to travel freely across state and district borders.

Whether MCO is still in force or cross-state travel ban has been lifted by then, it is utterly essential for Malaysians to remain constantly aware of the dangers and infection risks, taking absolutely good care of their own health as well as their families'.

Even if we eventually have to celebrate wherever we are now, we must still refrain from going around visiting relatives and friends. 

Making changes to a deep-rooted tradition is never easy, especially for something so important like CNY celebration. Nevertheless, given the very challenging situation now, we must put fighting the virus above everything else and cooperate with the government to curtail the spread of the virus in hope of flattening the curve as soon as possible to ensure everyone's health and safety.

As the daily new infection numbers have hovered at four digits for over a month now, with several days breaching the 3,000-mark, we don't expect the numbers to fall dramatically within a short period of time.

It is perhaps time for us to be mentally prepared to celebrate the new year in a completely different way under the new normal.