Uggah: Sarawak follows federal ruling in allowing four-in-car travel

KUCHING: Sarawak has decided to follow the federal ruling in allowing four family members of the same household to travel in a vehicle during the state’s Movement Control Order (MCO) period with immediate effect yesterday, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah.

Uggah who is also Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman in a statement yesterday said since the ruling has been gazetted as law, Sarawak will comply with it accordingly.

“The state’s stance is that, since this has been gazetted as the law, Sarawak will comply accordingly.

“In other words, we now allow four persons (family members of the same household) to travel in a vehicle (during MCO period),” he said.

The ruling was announced by Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Sunday, allowing a maximum of four family members from the same household to travel in a private vehicle during the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) period.

According to Ismail Sabri, it was allowed because the issue of social distancing is not happening in a household where family members eat and sleep together.

At the same time, he stressed that the four in the same vehicle must be from the same family and household only, while still complying with the CMCO standard operating procedure (SOP).

“So the government has decided to allow private vehicles a maximum of four family members to travel together. But they must come from the same family, same household,” he said

While Sarawak is following the four-per-car ruling, it however is not following Putrajaya in implementing the CMCO.

According to Uggah on Saturday, SDMC would need to study the implications of the reopening of economic activities, which sectors to open, when and to what extent they will be allowed to open before implementing CMCO.

As such, businesses and the various economic sectors not allowed to operate during the previous phase four MCO (MCO4) in the state will stay closed until the study is complete, he added.

Kedah, Penang, Selangor, Pahang, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan and Sabah also are not implementing the CMCO as of yesterday. Ismail Sabri in a press conference yesterday said that the SOPs and regulations in the previous MCO4 are now null and void with the commencement of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) or phase five of the MCO (MCO5).