SDMC poised to introduce more public measures for Kuchingites to comply with SOPs

Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian

By Adrian Lim

KUCHING, July 25: The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) is poised to introduce additional public measures to ensure that Kuchingites comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the government in view of the worsening Covid-19 situation in the city.

SDMC advisor Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian said the public especially Kuchingites need to play their role to curb and prevent the transmission of Covid-19 in the city.

“On a serious note, whether Kuching is red (zone) or not, the incidence per 100,000 and the infectivity rate or R-Naught (R0)~1.5-1.6 told us that additional new public measures for Kuching District will need to be introduced over the next few days.

“However, no matter what policy or measures (the) Sarawak government introduced, unless the public play their role and do their part, we will not be able to win the war with Covid-19 infection.

“Everyone has a role. Please play your part seriously. Together, we can prevent #2ndWave in Sarawak,” he said on his Facebook posting today.

Meanwhile, Dr Sim who is Minister for Local Government and Housing, said there was a difference in the figure reported by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and SDMC today.

He asserted that MoH has classified Kuching as a red zone of Covid-19 with 41 cases while SDMC said Kuching remained in the yellow zone with 39 cases of local transmission.

Dr Sim explained that the difference was because of the approaches taken by MoH and SDMC in calculating the figures of local transmission.

He said MoH’s figures include those with imported cases and local transmission while SDMC’s figure was just on local transmission cases.

“Yellow or red zone (reflection on activities of the last 14 days), the focus should be on what people of Kuching should play their role and do their part now,” he added. —DayakDaily