Ting proposes market traders be vaccinated in order to trade

Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting proposes that traders in markets under its jurisdiction be vaccinated before being allowed to trade.

“In order to make the market safe for customers, the only way is to get all the traders vaccinated ASAP. I will propose for every trader in all markets under SMC to be vaccinated and they cannot trade till they do.

“I am planning to apply this to all F&B outlets that includes coffee shops, restaurants, bistros and bars.

“We want a safe environment for customers. We want to dine in. We want to have a few drinks. All these can only happen when we are vaccinated,” he said in his Facebook post yesterday.

Ting added that together with council staff and JCI Sibu members, they spent two hours at Sibu Central Market registering 71 traders manually by forms and 25 through MySejahtera App.

Numerous others were checking and updating MySejahtera App.

He disclosed that traders at central market had expressed frustration with the slow business since re-opening.

“I am not surprised as the public is avoiding this place due to numerous positive cases in March and early April. At the Sunday Market here, the team managed to register 25 of 68 traders there for the national immunisation programme.

“We started off with a reluctant trader from Bintangor who claimed she was unwell and did not want to be vaccinated,” shared Ting, adding that those reluctant to get vaccinated claimed to suffer from comorbidities.

Ting hoped there would be more publicity and educational programmes on Covid-19 vaccination from the relevant authorities.