SIBU, Feb 23: Life for residents of Sibu Jaya flats and Town Villa housing estates have been hard following the enforcement of Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO).
The two housing areas were placed under EMCO from Feb 12 to 25 which was subsequently extended from Feb 26 to March 4 due to the spike in Covid-19 cases.
The affected residents who are under lockdown fervently hoped that things would return to normal as soon as possible so that they could resume their activities, their livelihood and going back to work.
A housekeeping service provider, Julia Lamban who lives nearby claimed that she had to turn down many bookings from Chinese families during the Chinese New Year celebration.
“Though I am not staying at the flat but at a terrace house nearby, I am also affected as Sibu Jaya was also under MCO from Jan 16 to Feb 14. Though MCO had been lifted, I will not take any chances as new cases around the flat area are still being detected,” she said.
Julia, 26 who is a single mother with a three-year old boy said she prefers to play safe by not venturing out too often to carry out her business.
“I received many bookings from Chinese families before the Chinese New Year celebration. But I told them that I cannot meet their requests due to MCO then and later EMCO,” she said.
Owing to that she experienced a big fall in her income.
“Prior to the enforcement of MCO 2.0, I was earning good money by cleaning up the home of her clients starting from November last year,” she said.
Julia said in normal days she could earn RM60 from cleaning a two-storey house and extra if she was required to trim the lawn. She had three assistants who were housewives and they were able to tend to three houses a day.
“The idea of setting up the business came about as I felt that most households do not have the time to clean up their home. So here I am providing the service at an affordable price not only for homes but offices as well. I also offer laundry service but now business had slowed down drastically,” she added. — DayakDaily
