Tiong calls for more stringent SOP in Bintulu to contain Covid-19 surge
KUCHING: Bintulu member of Parliament Dato Seri Tiong King Sing is calling on the Bintulu District Disaster Management Committee (BDDMC) to enhance its Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and implement stricter Movement Control Order (MCO) in view of the surge of new positive cases in the town.
One of the measures he suggested, was to limit business closing hours to 8pm and ban dine-in for restaurants and eateries except for takeaway service.
He also called for a temporary ban of leisure activities at parks and at Kidurong beach except for jogging and walking, subject to the people doing these exercises keeping a safe physical distance from each other.
“I will strongly recommend to BDDMC to ban all social gatherings and group activities in the town, villages and longhouses including wedding and anniversary receptions and also association activities,” he said in a statement Sunday night.
Tiong added that he would also recommend that companies allow at least 70 per cent of their employees to work from home to reduce the flow of people into the town.
He said from feedback he received, most of the people in Bintulu favour stricter MCO implementation despite the economic hardship they would have to face.
“The authorities must consider the economic shock to the people if MCO was implemented as many of them rely on daily income to support their families.
“The people must be allowed to carry out their business and earn their incomes, so we need to find a compromise in implementing a stringent SOP,” he said.
Tiong said the disaster
management committee will discuss the situation in-depth to come up with a plan to contain the pandemic without totally shutting down the economy. The meeting was scheduled to take place yesterday.
“I will also call on the Ministry of Education to immediately close schools for two weeks and use online classes to continue the school curriculum and allow only students sitting for SPM and STPM exams to return to school,” he added.
However, schools in rural and suburban areas may be allowed to stay open for face to face lessons as they are not directly affected by the outbreaks, he said.
On prayers and activities during Ramadan, Tiong said they should be left to the relevant religious authorities to decide on the SOPs, but suggested for the authorities to encourage those fasting to stay at home to break their fast instead of eating out.
On the surge of positive cases in Bintulu, he believed it was because of the stricter implementation of the travel SOP and increased testing of the people.
“Relatively few people took the initiative to be tested before so once testing was stepped up and more people were tested, it was discovered more people were infected than previously indicated,” he said.