KUCHING, Jan 10 — The Sarawak Federation of Chinese Associations (SFCA) has called on member associations to scale down their respective Lunar New Year activities to help curb the spread of the Covid-19 Omicron variant.

Federation president Datuk Richard Wee said the Omicron variant should be a cause of concern this festive season and the community must comply with standard operating procedures (SOPs) soon to be announced by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC).

"We are concerned with the Omicron variant. We advise our member associations to scale down the activities during the Chinese New Year period.

"However, it will be up to the individual associations to make their own decisions,” he told The Borneo Post today.

Wee said the SFCA had offered feedback to SDMC with regard to the SOPs for the festival.

"We have been in touch with (Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government Datuk Seri) Dr Sim (Kui Hian), who is the advisor to SDMC.

"We are currently waiting for the Chinese New Year SOP guidelines to be issued by SDMC and we shall work closely with (Unit for Other Religions) Unifor for the similar guidelines for the houses of worship during the Chinese New Year period.

"Yes, we have (proposed some measures to SDMC). But I would rather wait for the SDMC’s announcement,” he said.

On how soon SDMC would announce the new SOPs, Wee replied, "This week, I guess.”

Yesterday, Dr Sim said SDMC would convene soon to deliberate on the SOPs for the coming Chinese New Year.

He said the committee would take into account input from local specialists before making any decision.

Dr Sim said local specialists would look at projections before SDMC makes any decision as the people’s safety is of paramount importance.

Chinese across the globe will celebrate the Year of the Tiger on Feb 1. — Borneo Post