KUCHING: Kuching Coffeeshop and Restaurant Owners Association committee member Kapitan Tan Yit Sheng fears that extending the operating hours to 10pm will only cause more Covid-19 cases.
He explained that longer operating hours — previously, this was until 8pm — would only encourage the public to go out more while taking their sweet time ordering their takeaway food.
“… there will be cases of people heading somewhere else such as to a friend’s house or just hanging around as they know that they now have more time (to order their food).
“I don’t know why decision-makers would allow eateries to open until 10pm. This is definitely a wrong move,” he said today.
He opined that hours between 6am and 8pm are ideal and he hoped that the authorities would reconsider.
“I also think that they (authorities) should allow dine-ins gradually as what the Sabah and Singapore governments are doing.”
Tan said allowing dine-ins with the adherence to the strict standard operating procedures would prevent workplace clusters.
“Dine-ins will ease the pressure off factories and offices because these are the places that we see a lot of clusters occurring.
“This is because (office) workers would take their meals together in a small confined space and they could be sitting close to each other.”
He added that extending operating hours would not benefit eateries much, instead they would have to spend longer hours waiting for customers for takeaways.
“Instead of waiting for their customers to pick up their food, say around 7.30pm, the customers would now go at 9.30pm. This definitely does not help eateries.
“The authorities really need to go to the ground to see the situation and get feedback before making a decision.”
On Monday, the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee announced that effective June 29, eateries statewide would be allowed to open from 6am to 10pm.
