GEORGE TOWN, May 15 ― All Penang eateries will be allowed to open for dine-in service from May 18 onwards, said Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow.
He said the state exco met on May 13 and decided to allow dine-in at all food and beverage premises in the state.
“The local authorities together with the local government exco and state health department will need to issue guidelines needed for this second phase in allowing dine-in services,” he said in his Facebook message today.
He said with this means Penang is fully implementing the conditional movement control order (CMCO) where all sectors allowed by the National Security Council (NSC) are now allowed to operate in Penang.
Today, food and beverage outlets in shopping malls, hotels and fast food chains are allowed to open for dine-in service.
“I hope all will adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) by the local authorities that was announced on May 13,” he said.
He reminded Penangites that it is important to adhere to the SOP even though the state is now a green zone.
Chow then introduced a registration system for contact tracing through the Penang Contact Tracer application, also called PGCare.
“The PGCare is a public private partnership project between the state government through Chief Minister Incorporated with Madison Technologies and supported by Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd Malaysia,” he said.
He said this is a result of a virtual roundtable discussion held on April 20.
“The system can be accessed on www.pgcare.my or www.penanglawancovid19.com,” he said.
He said the PGCare application can be used to replace the SOP of registering the information of each customer who enters any business premises.
He said PGCare only needs three simple steps where the customer scans the QR code, fill in their information and check-in.
“In reality, this system saves time, avoid contact and ensure private information is safe and now misused,” he said.
Chow stressed that PGCare will only record name and contact number of the individual.
“The information can only be accessed by the state government while the business premises and others will not be able to access these information,” he said.
Chow said the data collected will only be accessed if there is a request from the health ministry for purpose of contact tracing and this data will only be kept for 30 days before it is automatically deleted,” he said.
He called on all business premises to use this system responsibly.
“Just as the name PgCare indicates, we are logging on because we care not only for ourselves, but also for our loved ones and our community,” he said.
He said Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri announced that Penang has recorded a 98 per cent compliance of CMCO along with Pahang and Melaka.
He thanked all Penangites for complying with the CMCO and hope all will continue to adhere to the SOPs.
