By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Mar 20: It was heartening to see that Sarawakians from all walks of life were playing their parts in combatting the Covid-19 disease by being responsible during the Restricted Movement Order’s 14-day period.
At Kuching International Airport (KIA) today, there were very few passengers and apart from the relevant airport officers, cleaners, and those offering services such as car rental, tax drivers, no one was seen loitering around aimlessly.
From the announcement screen, it showed that all flights by AirAsia were cancelled. MAS and MASwings however were still flying but only limited to one flight per day to any one destination.
At the airport, a tired-looking family was seen waiting patiently outside the terminal building before being picked up by a relative.
The relative who wore a Rela uniform upon arrival, gathered them around but kept them at a distance. He started to brief them loudly on what needed to be done and what not to in a very confident voice, before getting them into the car.
He reminded them to put themselves in self-quarantine for 14 days and other necessary measures which travellers returning to Sarawak needed to observe.
Meanwhile, Steve Oliver Jalin, KIA’s cleaning service contractor told DayakDaily that since February, his cleaning crew had started sanitising the airport three times a day.
Special attention has been given to high-touch surfaces such as door knobs, hand-rails and trolleys.
He said his crew had to make sure that cleanliness and sanitising was properly carried out as airports were one of the major gateways for people to come and go.
“Airports are the gateways to cities. So we are trying our best to keep KIA clean and sanitised to minimise the spread of the virus,” said Steve.
Ever since the outbreak of Covid-19, he said the cost of keeping the airport clean and sanitised had increased considerably due to the frequency of cleaning.
“The usage of sanitisers has increased tremendously. Not only that, the prices of some of them are getting more expensive due to the great demand,” he said.
However, the cleaning company has now reduced its workforce by half, as less workers on the ground will reduce the chances of infections.
“At this time, we have to apply less manpower so as to control the spread. Yet there are more things to be done, so they will have to work extra hard.
“Previously, we have 40 to 50 employees per shift, now, we are reducing them to 20 to 25 per shift. We offer round-the-clock cleaning service,” said Steve.—DayakDaily
