MUKAH: Panic buying and congestion at shopping centres should be avoided as they could help spread Covid-19, said Mukah Division Resident Hamdiah Bakir.
She pointed out that there was no cause for panic buying because businesses selling essential goods were operating as usual.
People must always remember that the virus spread quickly in public places, and panic buying in congested places could worsen the transmission.
Hamdiah, who is also Mukah Division Disaster Management Committee chairman, expressed her concern when monitoring the main shopping centre here at 5.30pm on Friday (May 28).
“If the number of cases increases, health workers won’t be able to focus on vaccination because they have to trace the close contacts of positive cases while attending to routine treatment of Covid-19 patients.
“This is a waste of time, energy and so on, and will certainly have an impact on society later on,” she said while leading the monitoring team.
The team also comprised the police headed by district chief DSP Muhamad Rizal Alias, and personnel of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) Mukah branch.
She explained that the increase in the number of cases would also indirectly affect the immunisation programme, which targets 2,000 people daily.
According to her, if health workers were not tied down by other duties, they could focus well on the plan to use Health Clinics in Balingian, Igan and Betanak as centres for administering the vaccine.
Hamdiah said currently, Mukah Hospital (at Dewan Suaran Mesra) Dalat Hospital (at Stadium Perpaduan Dalat), Daro Hospital (Dewan Masyarakat Daro) had been used as vaccination centres for patients who had records and treatment at the hospitals concerned.
She revealed that this was because these groups of vaccines needed close supervision and assessment by doctors.
She hoped that members of the disaster management committee would continue to play their roles in ensuring that the standard operating procedures (SOP) are complied with.
Hamdiah said that throughout the day (Friday) many people were at the banks and shopping centres because they wanted to withdraw money to buy essential goods before the movement control order (MCO) from today till June 11 takes effect.
