The Coming of Covid-19

Covid-19 first made headlines in Malaysia when several infected Mainland Chinese tourists in Singapore crossed the border to Johor during the final week of January 2020. The general public was quite dumbstruck on how the tourists (without a care in the world) decided to travel around knowing that a few of their family members were down with the deadly infection. From then on, some Malaysians in Kuala Lumpur had already started taking precautions, especially those who take the LRT and MRT. Truth be told, during those initial stages, I only wore a surgical mask once. My travel times to and from the office were quite off-peak, so I was spared much crowding. Just took the precaution of not unnecessarily touching the train surfaces, and refrain from touching my face. Also had a bottle of hand sanitizer handy in my backpack. As the days went by, and things got more alarming, more and more people started taking precautions. Most wore surgical masks. The more discerning used N95 masks. 'Advanced' commuters chose to put a surgical mask over an N95 mask. One or two took to wearing disposable gloves. Malay ladies with headscarves used large paperclips to hook the surgical masks around their heads. Coughs would make people look around nervously. Actually survived that long daily commute right up to the declaration of the Movement Control Order in April.