KUCHING: Business operators and shop retailers are urged to monitor carefully the patrons who enter their premises.
“The temperature screening procedure must be monitored by personnel or staff to check the eligibility of the customers before they are allowed to enter the premises,” said Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas during the Covid-19 daily update press conference here on Monday (Nov 16).
Noting that many retailers had installed the stand-alone thermal scanner devices and placed them at the entrances of their premises, the deputy minister said the devices would not help to curb the spread of Covid-19 without a proper observation procedure.
“One of the problems that I have noticed is that everybody is now buying the automatic thermometers (thermoscanners) and they just let them stand at the doors without anybody observing them.
“The purpose of these stand-alone thermal scanners is to find out whether any of your customers are showing any visible Covid-19 symptoms,” said Uggah.
Stressing that observation was necessary to avoid the risk of getting the infection, he urged business premises operators to improve the observation procedure to contain the transmission of Covid-19.
“Somebody must observe and monitor the procedure. If the temperature of a customer is high, the staff can advise him/her to go to a hospital.
“If the temperature is high and nobody is monitoring the screening procedure, this can increase the risk of Covid19 infection because there are no records.
“Please make sure that the thermal scanners are being monitored. This is the type of standard operating procedure (SOP) that we want to improve in the retail shops,” added Uggah.
