By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Oct 15: The current entry restrictions into Sarawak for travellers from Peninsula Malaysia and Sabah has been extended until Nov 15, 2020.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas announced that the standard operating procedures (SOP) for entry into Sarawak, effective from Oct 4 until 18, will now continue to be imposed until Nov 15 given the Covid-19 situation in Sarawak.
“Out of a total of 59 cases detected in the state to date, 50 per cent have travel history to Sabah and Labuan while 50 per cent have visited Peninsula Malaysia and six overseas imported cases.
“SDMC made this decision following observation of Covid-19 situations surrounding our state and noted that Sabah, Peninsula Malaysia, the Philippine and Indonesia are still seeing three digit cases,” he told a press conference on Covid-19 situation in Sarawak today.
The latest SOP for entry into Sarawak announced yesterday (Oct 14) include obtaining police permit for those intending to enter Sarawak via Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA), Sabah.
Travellers will need to submit the police permit when applying to enter the state via EnterSarawak app prior to their journey.
Uggah, who is also Deputy Chief Minister, thus emphasised that entry restrictions have to be extended to protect Sarawak and the people by preventing and stopping further spread of the infections from outside into the state.
“We hope people will be understanding about the decision made. We realised that there will be constraints to businesses and personal.
“We see now that there is an outbreak in West Malaysia and Sabah, and we have managed to control the situation in Sarawak with less number of positive cases,” he said.
Uggah added that this was the result of strict regulations on entry from Sabah, Peninsular Malaysia and other countries into Sarawak. — DayakDaily
