KUCHING, April 4: Social gatherings are not permitted in Covid-19 red and orange zones, says State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
According to Uggah, since early 2021 until today, most of the positive cases detected in the various communities in Sarawak have stemmed from attending social events.
“Organising social events such as feasts, weddings and engagement ceremonies, receptions, Aqiqah ceremonies, prayers, Tahlil, birthday celebrations, reunions, retreats and other social ceremonies are allow in green and yellow zones with not more than 50 per cent capacity, while organising any social gatherings in the red and orange zones is not allowed,” he said.
Uggah disclosed this during a press conference to give updates on the State’s Covid-19 situation at the former State Legislative Assembly (DUN) complex in Petra Jaya here today.
He added that since January this year, a total of 59 clusters involving social events have been identified involving 7,305 individuals who tested positive for Covid-19 and 30 fatalities.
He said other social events such as weddings, celebration, ‘gotong-royong’ (work parties), anniversary celebrations, cockfighting activities and many others also resulted in a total of 32 clusters being declared, and 1,928 Covid-19 positive individuals and five deaths.
“As such, SDMC would like to emphasis once again that although we know it is difficult to avoid social gatherings after a while, but think about the consequences.
“Even though the enforcement agencies play their role in taking disciplinary action the organisers and those who do not follow the existing standard operating procedure (SOP), the public need to work together to advise each other and spread awareness to stop gatherings at social events,” he added. — DayakDaily
