Wong gathers feedback from a hawker at a stall in Sibu.
SIBU (May 6): The Sarawak Islamic Council has been urged to reconsider its decision to allow Hari Raya visits between close family members in Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) areas when Covid-19 cases continue to climb.
Sarawak China Graduates Alumni Association chairman Dr Wong Siu Eing said with the state still registering triple-digits Covid-19 cases daily, the last thing to do was to loosen the standard operating procedures (SOPs).
“Sterner action should be taken to control and stop the spread of the virus. Instead, the MIS is coming up with the decision to allow family visits during Hari Raya. This is certainly not a good decision,” he said in a media statement.
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The MIS had on May 4 allowed Hari Raya visits between close family members in CMCO areas for the first seven days of the celebration which falls on May 13, but the following day, it shortened the period to three days.
It also said that the Raya visits must be confined to only the closest family members and the number of people must not be more than 50 percent of the capacity of the house, with physical distancing being fully observed.
Wong said all the sacrifices of frontliners in their fight against the virus would be laid to waste if any unfortunate cluster emerged from the house visits.
With the shortage in the supply of the medical resources coupled with the high mortality rate of Covid-19 patients, Wong said the situation now was becoming desperate which called for better coordination among the government and the people to fight the virus.
“This is more so with the reported emergence of new variants in our country such as the Indian-variant, the South African-variant and UK variant,” he said, adding that the government should be tough and implement stricter policies and SOPs.
Wong also said he recently visited the Ramadan stalls here and most of the traders he had spoken to were against the Hari Raya house visits.
“The traders do not agree on the family visits during Hari Raya celebration and many of them also mentioned that they would not open their house to their close relatives, let alone friends,” he said.
From past experience, Wong said the virus not only spread in public areas, but in the workplace and festive celebrations when friends and relatives crowded together.
“The festive celebrations whereby people crowded together is one of the high-risk areas that should not be encouraged or allowed.”
On the SOPs, Wong said the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) had often come up with different versions of SOP for MCO or CMCO that confused the people.
He suggested SDMC work together with the relevant agencies before implementing any policies to prevent any misunderstanding among the people.
He also called on the government to speed up the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme so that the lives of the people can return to normal.
“When the vaccine is available, many people are hoping that the curve of Covid-19 pandemic will be flattened by May but with the current situation, it appears that much still have to be done before the people can live a normal life and the country can truly return to normalcy,” he said.