‘No plan to stop itinerant traders despite positive test’

KUCHING: The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has no intention of stopping itinerant traders from operating after a hawker who operated out of his van at construction sites here tested positive for Covid-19 recently.

Its chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah said there was no justification to stop these traders from operating.

“If we shut them down, they are already in the lower income bracket, it will also close their income. So we have no good reason to do so (shut them down).

“So at the moment they can still sell their kuih,” he said during the committee’s press conference on Covid-19 here yesterday.

The deputy chief minister was asked if SDMC would prohibit traders from going place to place to trade given the recent confirmed case. Uggah pointed out that the Health Department would be conducting random screenings at construction sites where Case 771 had been trading.

“Everyone at the construction sites would be tested randomly,” he said.

He maintained that SDMC would not disrupt the economic activities of itinerant traders but would monitor them closely.

He added that it was also for that reason that SDMC decided not to enforce inter-district travel ban for Kuching.

“We have to look at the impact, look at the spread, and we try to reduce any big impact on the economy and the lives of the people. So we have to strike a balance between maintaining the health of the people and their socio-economy.”

Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian, meanwhile, told the press conference that although itinerant traders were still allowed to carry on with their business, they must follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) especially checking-in via Qmunity or MySejahtera at every location they visit.

“When they go to shops, they must follow the SOP – check in, check their temperature and

If we shut them down, they are already in the lower income bracket, it will also close their income. So we have no good reason to do so (shut them down). Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah

record their names, so that we will know where they go,” he said.