KUCHING, April 4: The federal government has been told to extend the movement control order (MCO) until the end of April, as not to risk another wave of infection.
Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo said more time would be required for “the worst” of the Covid-19 outbreak to blow over.
“Although there is no indication from the government of the continuation of the MCO after April 14, the order should be extended until April 30, in view of the increasing daily statistics on the Covid-19 situation,” she said in a statement.
Soo claimed she had repeatedly called upon the state government to deny entry of non-Sarawakian to the state and to seal off completely the state’s borders with Brunei, Sabah and Kalimantan.
She added that in her statement which was reported in the media on March 22, when there were 68 positive cases and three deaths in Sarawak, she had already urged the Sarawak government to go for a short painful lockdown to stop the community spread of Covid-19.
As of today, Soo said Sarawak has recorded 239 cases with nine deaths, where Kuching is marked as red zone and there were news of a Sarawak minister found positive for Covid-19.
“Now more of our Sarawak politicians are under quarantine. Malaysia, as a whole, has been getting three-digit new cases for the past few days with an accumulative total of 3,333. Sarawak has also been getting double-digit cases consecutively,” she added.
She believed this has shown that the Covid-19 situation in the country was not leveling down and yet to peak.
“Apparently the MCO, since March 18, has not been getting the desired results with the increase in positive cases and deaths. Testing and contact tracing seems to have have failed in effectiveness to contain the community spread.
“Large swathes of participants in the thousands who participated in mass gatherings in February and March have also not been tracked and tested. This is a time bomb in waiting, unless they are traced and tested,” she opined. — DayakDaily
