KUCHING, May 9 — The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has allowed economic sectors in the state to resume their activities beginning May 12 after studying reports from the state Health Department, its chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah said today.
“The standard operating procedures (SOPs) on the re-opening of the economic sectors have been prepared and the stakeholders have been informed on the activities which are allowed and those which are still banned.
“The list will be made public tomorrow,” he told a daily media briefing here.
He added any economic sectors which want to resume business activities only need to notify the Divisional Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) in their respective zones.
Uggah said he is confident that the new directive to allow the re-opening of the economic activities will provide a sense of relief to the people whose incomes are affected since the enforcement of the movement control order (MCO) on March 18.
“However, the decision does not mean that the state government is putting aside the health of the people.
“Both the health and economic aspects are taken into consideration in accordance with the interests of all,” Uggah, who is also the deputy chief minister, said.
“Therefore, the SOPs on the re-opening of the economic sectors will be strictly enforced and action will be taken against any violators,” he said.
He said the police, local councils, the People’s Volunteers Department and the Civil Defence Department will monitor the economic activities to ensure compliance of the SOPs.
“They will take action against those who do not comply with the SOPs,” he stressed.
Uggah also stressed that the SOPs for the green zones are different from the ones applied in the yellow and red zones.
He also issued a reminder that the ban on inter-district travel is still in force.
“It is not true that we have lifted the ban as has gone viral on social media that the roadblocks set up by the police and the military throughout the state have been dismantled from 6pm on May 8,” he said.
He added that the police and military will continue mounting the roadblocks to curb the movement of people from one district to another.
“We do not want people from the yellow or red zones to travel to the green zones. We want more districts to be classified as green zones,” he said.
He said based on the declining number of positive cases, Sarawak is on the way to winning the war against Covid-19 due to the cooperation extended by everyone to healthcare workers and frontliners.
