SIBU, Sept 5: Residents here are advised to stop dine-in at eateries for a while as Covid-19 cases have soared to three digits number with 323 cases reported yesterday.
Sibu Divisional Disaster Management Committee coordinator Dr Annuar Rapaee in giving this advice on his Facebook livestreaming yesterday said eateries do pose a high risk of coronavirus infection.
“The chances of getting infected at eateries are very high as most people will take down their mask to eat except for eatery workers. So avoid dine-in but tapau (takeaway),” he said.
The Nangka assemblyman was responding to a viewer who asked why there were no initiatives to ban dine-in when cases had spiked to over 300 in the past two days.
Dr Annuar also replied by saying that Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting had discussed the matter in the council but no decision on banning dine-in was made while noted that the latter also concurred with him that dine-in do pose a high risk of Covid-19 infection
On the other hand, Dr Annuar said the council had made it compulsory for those fully vaccinated to be allowed for dine-in.
By these, Dr Annuar was implying that there was no decision to ban dine-in at the moment but the people need to strictly follow the standard operating procedure (SOP) set by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC).
This includes observing physical distancing in accordance with the size of the table.
“However eatery outlets will have to close temporarily for sanitisation if the workers are found positive of the virus,” he said.
On the Covid-19 situation in Sibu, Dr Annuar revealed that for Week 35 (Aug 29 to Sept 4), there were 1,365 cases reported whereby 738 cases were in Category 1 (asymptomatic), 624 cases were in Category 2 (mild symptom), one case in Category 3 of lung infection and two cases in Category 4 of lung infection and on ventilators’ support.
Explaining further, he said the Category 3 and 4 cases were mostly those who have yet to be vaccinated or those who have just been administered with one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“With the majority of the cases in Category 1 and 2, it has proven that vaccination helps in preventing serious cases from happening. Though the number of cases are high, they are mostly in Category 1 and 2. The right approach is not to worry but we should not let our guard down either. We should continue to follow the SOPs,” he advised.
He also advised residents who had close contact with positive cases to go for swab test and isolate themselves immediately. — DayakDaily
