KUCHING, Sept 12: Sociocultural, religious and sports activities should be allowed to resume to a level deemed as “near normal” with lots of cautions without endangering the safety of the unvaccinated individuals in the community, said State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
In saying this, Dr Sim, who is also Minister for Local Government and Housing, emphasised that everyone needed to acknowledge the fact that it was unlikely to have Covid-19 eliminated, and only Covid-19 vaccine could keep vaccinated person safe from death and severe diseases.
“Hence, it is time to resume works and businesses (to protect our livelihood), (get the) students back to school for education (to protect our and their future),” he said in a posting on his social media page yesterday.
Dr Sim pointed out that the current Covid-19 situation in Sarawak has been different as compared to the Covid-19 situation in September last year.
According to him, as of September this year, Sarawak has been in the post vaccination era, and currently dealing with the Covid-19 Delta wave.
“Sarawak is at the endemic stage (sustained transmission in the community), where everyone must live with the virus, and need to reopen safely.
“The daily figures that we need to monitor for the severity of the disease (is) the numbers of cases with Category 3, 4 and 5, the number of death, hospital capacity by (the availability of) the number of intensive care unit (ICU) beds, as well as the numbers of ICU patients under ventilation.
“Since social (or family) gathering and workplace clusters are the two major contributing factors perpetuating Covid-19 in Sarawak, everyone needs to learn to restart with new living norms in their social lives and workplace,” he added. – DayakDaily.
