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Inter-district travel are welcomed but must be strictly controlled

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Police personel inspecting the police permit for inter-district travel. File photo: Bernama
BY CRYSTAL WONG

KUCHING: Under the conditional movement control order (CMCO) the local people and those in other districts require police permits to travel between districts.

This situation has created extra jobs for the police whose number of officers and constables is not always at the optimum level. Nevertheless, they still perform the unavoidable tasks because the public must be served no matter what. 

For the public, getting the permits take some amount of work and time, but those who must travel for business, work or social purposes don’t really mind.

When it comes to the crunch, most people are happy to oblige as long as they get to go to their destinations and fulfil their obligations or carry out their duties.

As with many things in life, one man’s mean is another man’s poison, and so there are those who think that inter-district travel should be disallowed, period. No two ways about it.

Luckily, there are other people who counter their assertions and they are not so insistent about prohibiting travel. They say yes, travel can be allowed provided the standard operating procedures (SOPs) are enforced strictly.

They also argued that the movements of too many people and vehicles from district to district could result in some infected individuals passing on the virus to their close contacts, thus widening the reach of the pandemic through the formation of new clusters.

So for those who must travel are reminded that it does not take much to pass on the virus to someone else. It can be a single innocent move such as giving or receiving a RM1 note that was inside an infected person’s wallet a few minutes before that.

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Anna Hiu
ANNA HIU, Terminal manager

Inter-district travel should be enforced strictly until all people are vaccinated, just like the way Brunei did it. Once the sultanate closed its borders, there were no more cases. Remember the case of the woman who returned to Sibu but did not stay at home where she was quarantined. One person can make such a difference. She went to an event attended by people from other districts and that contributed to a spike in the number cases there.

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Wong Boon Kheng
WONG BOON KHENG, Sales manager

Imagine living in one district and working in another, and then travel to some other districts to perform certain jobs. Without thinking too hard I can count the types of jobs that require frequent movements between districts. Delivery drivers are among the workers who have to travel from place to place and back. Therefore, I think the state government should enforce the inter-district travel SOPs strictly or else the spread of the virus will not end.

Leona Safarita

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LEONA SAFARITA, Student

I am currently stuck in Sibu after the Qing Ming Festival because the police won’t issue me a permit to return to Kuching. It was fine when I applied for a police permit in Kuching to go to Sibu, but I was not told at that time that I might not be able to make the return trip. If I had known then, I might not have decided to travel at all.

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Norita AP Taket
NORITA TAKET, Housewife

Police permits should be processed and issued at one location in each district so that we know exactly where to. It’s frustrating to have to go to one station and then told to go to another place. As for those who travel between districts, I think they should be required to show the results of their Covid-19 test or screening. It’s a good way to limit the spread of the virus.

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