Yesterday marks one week where no deaths due to COVID-19 have been recorded in the country, and the number of recovered cases was almost nine times that of the 10 new positive cases.

This is the lowest number of new cases recorded since the Movement Control Order (MCO) and the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) were implemented, indicating that the government had taken the correct measures to fight the disease.

At the same time, said Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the trend of the spread of COVID-19 among the local population had dropped.

In this aspect, besides the frontliners who have been consistent in their efforts to fight the disease, the ordinary people who complied with the standard operating procedure (SOP) and heeded the advice of the government must also be appreciated.

Without this cooperation and compliance, the success against COVID-19 would not have been possible.

Undeniably, there were some who violated the SOP, and these stubborn 'bad apples' must be punished as a lesson to themselves and others.

For if their numbers grow, then it would be difficult for the government to break the chain of COVID-19 infections.

Just look at the situation in our neighbouring country, Indonesia, where the health frontliners have started to give up because many people ignored the Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) imposed by the government since March 15.

This has caused the number of positive COVID-19 cases to skyrocket to more than 23,000.

The hashtag #Indonesiaterserah is currently trending in the social media with Indonesian netizens posting their comments about those people who ignore the PSBB.

Surely we do not want this to happen in our country. As Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said, compliance with the CMCO will lessen the burden on the frontliners, while it is important that government comes up with an exit plan before the CMCO ends.

-- BERNAMA