KUCHING, April 15 — Stricter inter-zone travel regulations will be imposed in Sarawak starting next Monday, said State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas.

He said this latest directive was in view of the easy accessibility to travel between zones across the state which has contributed to the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the state.

"We have previously made a regulation that traveling between zones will be controlled but it looks like in the past few months, movement through zones are one of the main contributors to the increase of Sarawak’s Covid-19 cases.

"Therefore, by Monday, we will enforce a new condition on which movement from zone to zone will be allowed,” he told a press conference here today.

He said further details on this will only be announced tomorrow after SDMC’s discussion with the police.

"This is because the police will have to understand this condition so that when they issue the permit for inter-zone travel, it will be a very clear directive.

"At the moment, it’s very vague because we just put essential services which can be interpreted in many ways and in this case, we can see that it needs to be redefined,” he explained.

Uggah, who is also a deputy chief minister, said travelling between districts would not be allowed from Monday onwards unless it is deemed necessary.

"Those who wish to do so must first get approval from their respective heads of departments,” he said.

He also announced that SDMC has also decided that no physical meetings will be allowed for the next two weeks.

"All meetings are to continue via online through applications such as Zoom,” he said.

Apart from that, he said all events in the state are to be deferred within the next two weeks. — Borneo Post Online