Malaysians have resorted to raising white flags outside their homes to request aid from the hardships caused by the strict lockdown imposed by authorities to control the coronavirus. The white flag campaign gained momentum on social media last week to help low-income individuals showcase their suffering. Many entities responded to the campaign, with neighbors, celebrities, and companies offering food and other necessities to those in need. Activists on Facebook shared pictures of legumes and essential food items they were able to save, as well as information about nearby food banks. Celebrities, including rapper Ultim8, announced on Instagram that he and his friends would leave food supplies at the doors of homes displaying white flags.
Malaysia has been under a full lockdown since June 1 in an attempt to break a significant wave of COVID-19 infections. Newspaper pages and news sites have been filled with poignant stories of families that have depleted their food reserves and are now living on a single meal a day. Many households have declared they have earned no income for the past six weeks. The number of suicides has also increased, with police reporting 468 suicides in the first five months of this year, compared to 631 in all of last year and 609 in the year before that.
### Black Flag Campaign
Some Malaysians have begun raising black flags in a separate campaign asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin. The hashtag related to black flags trended on Twitter in Malaysia on Saturday. The country's opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, included three black flags in a tweet that garnered thousands of retweets. Police are investigating the black flag campaign, alleging it contains inciting elements, as reported by the New Straits Times.
### Current Status of COVID-19 in Malaysia
Malaysia is currently grappling with its worst wave of the pandemic, recording nearly 5,400 fatalities due to COVID-19 in the past two months. On Saturday, the country reported 6,658 new infections within 24 hours. Meanwhile, five Malaysian states began easing restrictions on Monday as infection numbers declined in those areas. However, parts of the capital Kuala Lumpur and the neighboring Selangor state are still under strict measures, including a curfew starting at 8 PM, after infection numbers surged in those regions, which accounted for more than half of the new cases in the country in recent weeks. Only eight percent of Malaysia's 32 million residents have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 19 percent have received one dose of the vaccine.
