SIBU: The night market and weekly market will continue despite the cancellation of the Ramadan bazaars here.
Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting confirmed this today.
“Both can continue. No problem. The night market will operate starting tomorrow night (Friday) while the weekly market will start this Saturday.”
Many thought that the cancellation of the Ramadan bazaars would also affect the two markets as traders for the former were required to undergo Covid-19 tests together with night market and weekly market traders.
Traders were required to undergo the tests as a condition to operate during the Ramadan month.
However, the Ramadan bazaars were cancelled even though the traders operating at Dataran Bandar Sibu Phase II had undergone tests.
Despite the cancellation, the bazaar traders at Bandong Walk and Pelangi Food Kiosk at Kampung Nangka are allowed to operate as they are located on the side of the road, and customers can order online or place orders from inside their vehicles.
“So far, there has been no decision and the operations will continue while adopting standard operating procedure (SOP) guidelines,” Ting said.
He added that the operations of the two markets would be conducted according to a rotation system.
“It’s like before, alternately. If one does business today, someone else will do it tomorrow. After that, it’s his or her turn again to do business the day after tomorrow.
“This is because we want only 50 percent of both areas to be allowed to facilitate the practice of SOPs.”
The night market can accommodate 164 traders while the weekly market can accommodate 183 traders, but capacity should be only 50 percent under the conditional movement control order (CMCO).
Both markets have been closed since the MCO on Jan 16 following the spread of the Pasai Cluster.
The night market will operate from 5.30pm to 10pm while the weekly market will operate from 6am to 11am every Saturday and Sunday.
