KUCHING, April 23: Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) Youth is advocating that a complete lockdown or “Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO)” be enforced in Kuching and Samarahan.
Its secretary-general Milton Foo asserted such a measure is called for as both areas are classified as Red Zones with the most number of cases in Sarawak.
“The confirmed cases of Covid-19 as of yesterday afternoon in Kuching (285 cases) and Samarahan (77 cases) remain high, so it is necessary for the Sarawak government to take more stringent measures in Kuching and Samarahan, both classified as Red Zones, to implement ‘Enhanced MCO’ (EMCO) to effectively curb the spread of the deadly disease of Covid-19 in the two [areas],” he opined in a statement today.
He added that since the implementation of the first phase of the nationwide MCO on March 18, Kuching and Samarahan have become among the most severely affected areas in the country, and the number of infections continues to rise daily, with both areas registering fatalities totalling 13.
“Although most of the shops in the city remain closed, there are still many cars on the road and people come out at night in violation of MCO.
“I strongly urge the government to implement a complete lockdown in Kuching and Samarahan and to review the policy of allowing certain food catering businesses to operate until 10pm in the evening as announced by SDMC (State Disaster Management Committee) yesterday,” said Foo in a statement today.
He expressed belief that if the MCO is relaxed at this point of time, it will cause all the state government’s efforts this past month to combat the epidemic to fail, causing irreversible damage in the end.
“To safeguard Sarawak is the only mission and responsibility of each and every Sarawakian now. Anyone who wants to go out from their house please think twice and consider our frontliners who are risking their lives relentlessly to take care of the Covid-19 patients,” Foo added.
SDMC had allowed hotels, restaurants and home-based petty traders to operate from 3pm to 10pm in view of Ramadan month.
However, the decision was reversed due to public objection.
Business hours for food traders during the fasting month now have reverted to the 7am-7pm time frame in accordance with the movement control order (MCO). — DayakDaily
