Hot Issue #whats4lunch by ACTnow

The fresh COVID-19 outbreak in Harbin, capital city of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, is caused by the Delta variant, local health authorities said on sept 24 after the city reported nearly 30 cases in three days. 

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Rina Harun said 9,015 police reports were lodged for domestic violence since the movement control order (MCO) for the Covid-19 pandemic started last year. Did the pandemic contributed to the rise of domestic violence?

580,000 M40 households are now categorised as B40 and this represents approximately 20 per cent of the middle-income group. What is government doing to help them?

Covid-19 cases involving children leapt to 310,074 as at the end of August, which is 25 times more than the whole of last year. The number was only 12,620 last year. What is the Health Ministry doing about this?

Singapore has kicked off its national Covid-19 vaccine booster programme on Sept 15. More than 80% of its population has been vaccinated against COVID-19. The country is looking at vaccinating children under 12 years in early 2022. Some health experts in Singapore are calling for mandatory vaccination against the coronavirus with a growing toll of severe COVID-19 among unvaccinated people as infections surge and with vaccine take-up plateauing at 82% of the population.

The Covid-19 epidemic affected some business owners so severely that they turned to loan sharks in desperation for assistance. Business owners turned to loan sharks after running out of capital due to the continual lockdowns implemented by the government to curb the spread of Covid-19. However, those who borrowed from loan sharks were not limited to business owners and they were not able to pay back their loans due to the high interest rates and the amount snowballed. 

Malaysia recorded 902 attempted suicides from 2018 to June 2021. In Malaysia, anyone who attempts to commit suicide can be sentenced with up to a year in jail or a fine, or both, under Section 309 of the Penal Code. Many other countries that had already done away with criminalizing suicide attempts. Malaysia is among the few nations which still keep this particular law. Do you think we should decriminalizing it?

A total of 76,786 divorce petitions were filed nationwide from March 2020 to August this year. MUSLIM applications for divorce were 6.5 times higher than non-Muslim applications between March 2020 and August 2021. Why is this happening?

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said, Malaysia can start preparing its move into an endemic by end of October. The endemic stage of a disease is when a country achieves high vaccination coverage of its population. ​The dictionary definition of the word is "adjective that means natural to, native to, confined to, or widespread within a place or population of people." This is sort of the next natural progression when a virus doesn't go away, sort of like dengue. Scientists are still working on ways to eradicate the disease. When a disease reaches this stage, it's usually more controlled and we know how to prevent its spread. In the case of COVID-19, we will most probably resume "normal" lives where all economic sectors, schools and other places that have been closed will be open. However, the mandatory mask wearing as well as other precautions such as getting vaccinated, maintaining social distancing and good hygiene will still be in practice.

Think twice before getting naked or doing obscene acts online because a woman you met on social media asks you to do so, as blackmailers have netted more than RM200,000 from the 35 men who have done so since the start of this year. The modus operandi for all cases is similar, with the suspect befriending the victims via social media such as Facebook or Instagram. The suspect would then entice the men to get naked together online adding that the victims are all aged from 25 to 45 years old. Then the suspect will turn around and blackmail the victims to pay money to prevent these naked videos from being leaked on social media. If the victims do not pay them, the videos and photos are sent to their friends and family members besides being uploaded on social media. According to the Selangor police, A total of 220 cases of blackmail or extortion using nude photos have been reported from Jan 1 to June 30. Victims were extorted for between RM3,000 and RM50,000.