By Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily

In the eyes of Taiwanese Lee Cheng-hao, Malaysia is like the Judgement Day. The country is in a state of emergency, and policemen here arrest people everywhere. Our hospitals lack the basic equipment and healthcare personnel have to improvise garbage bags into PPE. There are more bodies from coronavirus-related deaths than crematoriums can handle that many are buried on the roadside.

Anyone living in a country like this is doomed!

But of course, this is not Malaysia, and Lee Cheng-hao has realised this and has apologised. I have no intention of any sort to pursue this matter any further here.

In real life Malaysia, we are living in a country that is not a living hell by all means. 14th day into the MCO, I comply with the order to stay at home and am still intact and well. Looking at friends and relatives I know, they are mostly like me, still going on with their respective lives reasonably well.

Sure enough we have our own problems in this country. Right at this moment the coronavirus outbreak is still very much expanding here. The MCO is still being implemented, and the economy is suffering badly.

But, this is a massive crisis of global proportions. And as a part of this world, we are not spared from the  scourge.

Our planet is now experiencing a major catastrophe. No country in this world is absolutely safe. To be frank, we should count our blessings to be able to live in Malaysia.

I hate to exploit the tragedies in Italy and Spain as comparisons. Neither do I wish to console myself with the crises about to burst in India and Indonesia. Let's look at the US and UK which many in this world believe are the safest.

Last week, when the outbreaks in UK and US turned bad, Malaysian students and migrants in these two countries rushed to grab their air tickets home, even though the airfares jumped exponentially. They would rather take the risk of infection at airports and inside the aircraft cabin to fly back back to Malaysia.

The reason is very simple. Compared to these two countries, Malaysia is relatively safe now.

I'm not sure whether British prime minister Boris Johnson is a fool or a master strategist, but his "herd immunity" tactic was really frightening. He was prepared to let 60% of Britons get infected with COVID-19 so that they will produce antibodies when encountering the infectious agent again.

A simple calculation reveals that 60% of the population getting infected with a global average mortality rate of 4.4% will mean two million Britons dying of coronavirus, or four times the country's WWII toll.

Moreover, things could get very much worse if antibiotic still does not come by after a while.

Seeing the bold move by Johnson, few Malaysians living in the UK will not feel terrified. Even though the prime minister later reversed his decision, declaring a nationwide lockdown, the outbreak has already spread far and wide. Many Malaysians have to let go of their studies and jobs to come back home.

The situation in the US is even more perilous. For fear of affecting the country's economy and hence his re-election prospects, President Trump has adopted a similar care-free attitude towards the virus. As if that is not enough, thanks to the much cherished liberalism among the people, many Americans refuse to be tied down to their homes. As a result, the number of confirmed cases has surged dramatically to take the top spot in the world.

Even if Trump is tightening the segregation policy now, the prospects are still glum. He himself has said an estimated 10 million deaths in America is still acceptable!

Do you still feel safe staying in America?

Although UK, US and EU boast some of the most sophisticated medical systems in the world, they lack alertness and a strong resolution to contain the outbreaks. They fail to get their medical resources ready prior to the explosive spread of the virus. Today, they lack frontline healthcare personnel, hospital beds, test kids and ventilators. Face masks and sanitisers are also hard to come by.

By comparison, the situation in Malaysia is definitely not as bad as Lee Cheng-hao would want his fans to believe. On the contrary, our medical system, availability and quality of frontline healthcare personnel, the government's counter-measures, as well as self-discipline among our people, have been a notch better than many countries.

As a matter of fact, even as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country keeps rising steadily over the past two weeks, we have yet to see a massive explosion in the number of cases, while the fatality rate here is just around 1%, far below the global average of 4.4%.

COVID-19 testing is the first line of defence against the virus, and we have done exceptionally well in this aspect within a short period of time. So far more than 30,000 people have been tested at a rate better than many European countries!

According to director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the country has the ability to provide more than 6,000 beds for the treatment of coronavirus cases, enough to meet the needs of peak infection and far superior than most countries of this world.

Meanwhile, Malaysia has been selected by WHO as one of the countries in the research of a new antiviral drug mainly because of our excellent medical facilities and workforce.

During such a trying time, we are fortunate to be living in Malaysia. Sure enough there is still ample room for improvement in fighting the war against the virus, this will require the concerted effort of everyone in this country. But most importantly, we must thank and do our utmost to help our medical teams and frontline warriors in building a relative safe protection net for all Malaysians.