INTER-DISTRICT TRAVEL
KUCHING: In view of the increasing Covid-19 cases in the state especially here, the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) is deliberating on the potential restoration of the inter-district travel ban while also considering the practicality of the situation.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas noted that as Kuching was the state’s administrative, commercial, and business centre they had to get lots of feedback from the public and the business sector.
“We will have a discussion with Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg because if we stop inter-district travel, that can bring about a lot of issues,” he said at the SDMC Covid-19 daily update press conference yesterday (July 21).
“At the moment, we still feel that the situation does not warrant that strategy.”
He said that if it came to it, the federal government would need to gazette the ban but the state also had a by-law which could be implemented.
According to Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian, this was the Protection of Public Health Ordinance.
“We are studying the matter and monitoring the progress and contact tracing. We will likely also contemplate having active case detection areas and if that does not work we will probably move in that direction (of inter-district travel ban),” said Uggah, who is also SDMC chairman.
In the meantime, he advised families in Kuching to reduce or avoid visiting their relatives in Covid-19 green zones.
Meanwhile, when asked by reporters whether travellers entering Sarawak from West Malaysia, Sabah, and Labuan would need to be tested three days prior to their travel date and undergo quarantine, he said that this condition had already been withdrawn.
“However, they have to fill in the e-Health form and they must undergo temperature checks and so on. We have also decided to do random testing on ten percent of incoming passengers,” he said.
In response to Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s earlier announcement that quarantine at hotels or quarantine centres would be mandatory for all individuals, Malaysian or non-citizens returning to Malaysia from overseas starting Friday (July 24), Uggah said that Sarawak would monitor the situation and maintain its current policy for now.
“For Sarawakians returning from overseas, we will still quarantine them for 14 days,” he said, explaining that there had been a few cases which only tested positive after a number of Covid-19 tests.
He added that the state government would bear the quarantine costs, with the exception of workers from overseas.
“These are mostly Indonesian workers. We require that they be quarantined for 14 days. In this category, the employer will pay for the hotels and the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test,” he said.
On another matter, with regard to Case 576 which involved the death of a 72-year-old man recently, Sarawak Health Department (JKNS) director Dr Chin Zin Hing explained that the case was related to the Stutong Market Cluster as he often went there to purchase food items and groceries.
“Therefore, we took the people at Stutong Market such as the hawkers as possible contacts. That is why when we did the contact tracing, these individuals were on the list,” he said.
He said that when an initial screening found positive cases, the whole market was considered as close contacts, with traders and hawkers asked to go for screening.
