Resident: 502 rooms may not be enough to house returnees
BINTULU: Eight hotels here used to quarantine Persons-UnderSurveillance (PUS) are capable of accommodating 502 people, says chairman of Divisional Disaster Management Committee Jack Aman Luat.
Their worry, he said, was that if the number should go up there won’t be enough rooms to accommodate them.
“The number of students from Peninsula and oversees returning home for Hari Raya would be many, and should the number exceeds 502 we will have problem accommodating them,” he said.
So far 235 PUS are being quarantined at Parkcity Everly Hotel.
Jack, who is Bintulu Resident, however believed the state government would do its best to resolve the issue.
Speaking to reporters at Bintulu Resident’s office yesterday, he said about 6,000 students were supposed to come home for the celebration.
We anticipate that we may have problem in terms of accommodation. Jack Aman Luat
“I don’t know how many of them are from Bintulu since I don’t have the list yet, but we hope to settle this issue soonest because we also cater for students from Mukah, Asap and Belaga.
“We anticipate that we may have problem in terms of accommodation,” he said.
Jack said the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee has amended its directive on the quarantine of Sarawakians as PUS upon their return to the state.
He added that based on the new directive, PUS would be quarantined in hotels for seven days at the point-of-entry and would be tested for Covid-19 virus. They will be allowed to complete the balance of their 14day quarantine at home if their tests returned negative.
Bintulu has so far recorded 11 positive Covid-19 patients. Three of them (a woman and two men) have been discharged. The remaining eight are still being treated at Bintulu Hospital.
“Bintulu has recorded 154 persons under investigation (PUI) and 44 of them are quarantined at Similajau National Park and 16 at Wasan Inn since January this year,” he said.
On other matter, Jack said free masks would be distributed by today (April 23) to all heads of households in the division, with four pieces per household.