KUCHING, May 28: Bintulu will follow the standard operating procedure (SOP) of maximum number of individuals in private vehicles to be announced by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) later in the evening today.
Bintulu MP Dato Sri Tiong King Sing said Bintulu would follow suit the updated version of the SOP and implement the changes formally.
On the talks about limiting the number of individuals in one private vehicle to only one person in Bintulu as announced on May 26, he said the Bintulu Divisional Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) did not change policies randomly but the decision was just not gazetted in time.
“We had originally wanted to recommend the ‘one car, one person’ policy because although Bintulu’s Covid-19 cases had dropped from three-digit to two, it is still fluctuating and not showing a continuous downward trend.
“At the same time, we anticipated that the 70 per cent work-from-home rule would greatly reduce the flow of people and vehicles but it has not been effective.
“It is clear that the volume of people and vehicles out is still staggeringly high. We need to achieve zero cases but if this continues, how would we effectively contain the pandemic,” he said in a statement today.
Tiong also pointed out that before the ‘one car, one person’ SOP was officially enforced, the number of vehicles at each roadblock had doubled with kilometre-long queues forming in line.
He said some people that the police recognised who previously claimed to be without driver’s license would suddenly be behind the wheels one day.
Adding on, he said some citizens when confronted by the police said that they only have one car at home but later investigations found that there were more than one car in each home.
With this, he expressed disappointment and strongly urged the general public and those who are ever so reluctant to obey the SOP by the authorities, to be cooperative in efforts to flatten the pandemic curve as soon as possible.
“Perhaps, if everyone really desires so much freedom, the authorities could take the simplest route by removing all SOP so people can enjoy life. But who will bear the consequences,” he added. — DayakDaily
