Community must play role as frontliners to tackle COVID-19 - Muhyiddin

He stressed that until the COVID-19 vaccine could reach the stipulated target, the country would continue to face a tough period in combating the pandemic because the number of cases is still high although there is a decline in new positive cases.

He said efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 would not be able to achieve its goal if it is not supported by everyone.

“As such, the Community Empowerment Programme is a weapon that we have to jointly curb the spread of the virus.

“These efforts are also in line with the strategy in the National Unity Policy to empower the institutions of family and community that I launched on Feb 15,” he said in his speech in conjunction with the Community Empowerment Programme that was telecast live on TV1, RTM today.

Muhyiddin also said that the government was targeting at least 80 per cent of the adult population in the country to receive the COVID-19 vaccine jab by February 2022 to reduce the spread of the pandemic.

The Prime Minister said not only has the government mobilised several initiatives on Community Empowerment, but it would continue to do so, to tackle the spread of the virus, including introducing COVID-19 Eradicating Agent Programme (ABC-19) through the ‘Whole-of-Society’ approach driven by government agencies, community leaderships and non-governmental organisation (NGO) volunteers nationwide.

He said that as of March 23, a total of 29,408 members of agencies and community leaderships had reached out to more than 1.325 million Malaysians through various programmes in over 22,166 hotspots, with the ABC-19 membership increasing through the involvement of NGO volunteers.

Muhyiddin explained that the various issues and challenges currently faced by the community to tackle COVID-19 needed a collective approach that was innovative and creative, thus comprehensive community empowerment was very important as part of efforts to combat the pandemic.

“Community leadership is the backbone of every community.

“For example, the penghulu, village heads, religious leaders, heads of longhouses, Village Development and Security Committees, Federal Village Development and Security Committees, Orang Asli Village Development and Security Committees and other community leaders must be mobilised to jointly make this effort a success,” he said.

The Prime Minister also urged the community to implement surveillance activities in their respective areas as part of efforts to curb the spread of the virus.

“If we look at the Ministry of Health’s statistics, the high number of cases of infections in the community is very worrying. We do not know who amongst us is infected because they do not show any symptoms,” he said.

As such, Muhyiddin wants all mediums and platforms of the respective communities to be mobilised so that the communities themselves can take responsibility to care for their environment without requiring strict enforcement by the government.

“Community leaders must also ensure their members comply with the new normal standard operating procedure (SOP) by advising, reprimanding, guiding and reminding them to always remain vigilant and indirectly cultivate them in their daily life for the common good,” he said.

In order to carry out all these approaches, he said the government had instructed the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), through the Disaster Management secretariats at state and district levels to coordinate the implementation of the ABC-19 on the ground nationwide.

“I again urge all Malaysians to continue to work together to achieve our aspiration of ending the pandemic and reviving the development and prosperity of our beloved country, InsyaAllah,” he said.