By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Jan 15: Sibu residents are making preparations for the Movement Control Order (MCO) which will start tomorrow (Jan 16) to Jan 29, 2021.
Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting who had driven around Sibu town to check on the ground said many shops are now closed or only in operation for half-day today.
“Today, only about 40 per cent of the shops in Sibu town were open and many closed in the afternoon. Even in the morning, there were not many sitting in coffee shops.
“There is also less traffic on the road. Sibu people are making preparations for MCO,” Ting told DayakDaily when contacted today.
He said in general, Sibu residents are worried about the Pasai Cluster and would prefer to stop its spread to other parts of Sibu.
“Pasai Siong is about 45 kilometres away from Sibu town. It is like Serian to Kuching, but the cluster has spread to other parts of Sarawak including Miri. Sibu people are worried that it may manifest itself and spread to Sibu town.
“So even though the epicentre is not in Sibu town, Sibu people are preparing for MCO to curb the spread,” said Ting.
Ting like many Sibu residents, agreed with the decision of MCO to be placed in Sibu Division which includes Sibu District, Kanowit District and Selangau District.
“It is wise to place Sibu under MCO because as you can see, those infected have been to quite some business establishments as reflected in the long list of premises patronised by them.
“MCO is good also as it calms the people and it can contain the spread as there will be less people in town, so there will be less interaction and with that, I hope and pray that the spread may be contained and cases reduced,” said Ting.
Ting pointed out that the Covid-19 cases in Sibu did not involve a general “surge” but rather, it is just a spread that linked to the particular cluster of Pasai Siong where the outbreak started with a longhouse which later aggravated to be big number transmission, even to other longhouses in other parts of Sarawak.
Yesterday, out of 180 Covid-19 positive cases in Sarawak, 150 are linked to the Pasai Cluster. The day before on Jan 13, 2021, there are 166 cases statewide, 92 are linked to the same cluster. -DayakDaily
