Padungan rep calls for cancellation of RWMF 2020 amid Covid-19 outbreak

Wong King Wei

KUCHING, Mar 13: Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture should not allow this year’s Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) to go on as scheduled.

Giving this advice, Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei emphasised that the ministry’s decision to allow RWMF 2020 to be carried out as scheduled had infringed the guidelines by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Sarawak Disaster Management Committee.

“The RWMF 2019 recorded about 23,000 visitors, a majority of whom came from foreign countries across the globe.

“Now with the threat of Covid-19 worldwide and Sarawak having recorded three positive cases today, MoH has advised against holding mass gatherings,” he said in a statement today.

Wong urged Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah to cancel RWMF so not to put the health of Sarawakians at stake.

Meanwhile, Sarawak has recorded its first case of Covid-19 disease today with three people tested positive.

The State Disaster Management Committee informed that two of the cases were from the cluster attending the Ijtimak (religious gathering) at Sri Petaling Mosque in Selangor from Feb 28 to March 1.

The third case was a family member associated to one of the members who attended the gathering.

So far, Sarawak Health Department has tracked 236 participants and will continue to track the remaining attendees. —DayakDaily