KUCHING: The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) will decide at its meeting tomorrow whether to extend the movement control order (MCO) to other parts of the state. Currently the MCO is only enforced in Sibu Division.
“We will have our meeting and we will issue a few other standard operating procedures (SOPs) to control the Covid-19 situation in Sarawak,” said its chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas today.
“Our aim is not to burden the people but to ensure that all Sarawakians are safe from Covid-19. If strict action has to be taken, SDMC will not hesitate to enforce strict action,” he emphasised.
He also announced that the SOP for the MCO enforced in Sibu Division would be issued by the National Security Council (MKN) Sarawak on MKN’s official portal (http://www.mkn.gov.my). The SOP would be effective in Sibu Division from 12.01am on Jan 16 to 11.59pm on Jan 29.
He pointed out that the past few days had seen a spike in Covid-19 cases reported in Sarawak, with a decrease in numbers recorded on Friday. “We hope the number of cases will continue to decrease,” he said.
He attributed the recent spike in cases to non-compliance with SOP and that many people were lax and thought they were safe from Covid-19.
“So take all of this as a lesson to us in Sarawak. A few weeks ago, we were the role model state, but now we have red, orange, yellow and green zones – not a good sign,” he said, appealing to everyone to work together and comply strictly with the SOP.
“Our country has enforced a state of emergency – that is an expression of the urgency of the situation,” stressed Uggah, who is also Deputy Chief Minister.
Noting that Sarawak had managed to keep its Covid-19 situation in check before, he expressed confidence that the state could do it again.
“The Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government is playing our part and doing what we can; spending resources and mobilising manpower. But to make sure we win the war, we need the cooperation of everyone,” he urged.
Thus, he called upon community leaders, particular those in the interior areas along the border, to report to the police if they came across undocumented immigrants as these individuals had made up a number of Covid-19 cases here.
