BINTULU: Residents here have been adhering to conditional movement control order (CMCO) standard operating procedures (SOPs).
This was the view of a General Operations Force (PGA) officer from Battalion 12, Nurhidayat Mohammad, during a survey by the Sarawak Information Department (JaPen) on Monday (May 10).
“We have been in Bintulu for a month now and from our daily monitoring operations, Bintulu folk are complying with CMCO SOPs set by the Bintulu Divisional Disaster Management Committee (DDMC).”
He said authorities would stop any vehicle breaching SOPs such as having more than two people inside (private vehicle), travelling more than 10km from the place of residence, and travelling without a letter from the employer. “We will ask them to turn back.”
Nurhidayat added that any movement after 8pm was prohibited unless necessary and with a confirmation letter, and anyone found violating the SOPs would be compounded.
A JaPen survey at a supermarket here also found that customers and supermarket management were complying with SOPs.
“We have no problem reducing employee attendance to 30 per cent for the administrative division and allowing another 70 per cent to work from home, while for supermarket operations employees, we have set shifts to avoid congestion in the premises,” Kho Min Chen, the supermarket manager, said.
“As for customers, we use a number system to control entry, with a limit of 50 at a time. If the premises gets crowded, we will block the entrance until it returns to normal.”
A staff was placed at each entrance to control the movement of customers to avoid congestion, Kho added.
Traders and visitors to the Bintulu market also complied with CMCO SOPs, such as using face masks and checking in on the MySejahtera app.
Overall, the community in Bintulu increasingly understands the importance of complying with safety procedures set by the authorities.
