KUCHING, March 19 — The state government must order three weeks’ medical quarantine for any Sarawakian returning from the tabligh event in Sulawesi, Indonesia, Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo said today.

She claimed this is because the incubation period without symptoms is known to take up more than 20 days.

She said according to media reports, 83 Malaysians are said to have travelled to Sulawesi to attend the gathering.

She noted that the recent tabligh event at Sri Petaling had caused more than 500 infections, the biggest so far in the country, including Sarawak.

"This may be the tip of the iceberg as it is alleged that some of these participants had not reported and refused to go for testing, and may have gone on to be spreaders, unknown to the community,” she said.

"To deflect the infection curve, the state must close its borders and prohibit Sarawakians to leave the state and non-Sarawakians must not be allowed to enter,” she said.

Soo also wants the Sarawak government to stop all movement of members of Parliament between Sarawak and Putrajaya, saying that two of them have been infected and upon return to risk spreading the infection to party members and supporters.

She said Sarawak’s healthcare system is very weak due to the meagre allocation of federal funds to Sarawak over the years, warning it will collapse if Covid-19 cases were to increase exponentially.

"The Sarawak government must pull out all the stops, plug any possible leakage, and spare no effort by any means possible to eradicate Covid-19 in Sarawak, even to the point of absolute isolation from the rest of the world,” she said.

She also called on Sarawakians to cooperate with the state government’s efforts to contain and mitigate the Covid-19 pandemic.