KUCHING, June 4 — The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) clarified today that those travelling for business and civil servants who attend meetings in other states will be exempted from Covid-19 screening before returning to Sarawak.
For those with business affairs, they will need to attach a schedule of events for consideration of standard operating procedure (SOP) exemption, whereas the civil servants attending meetings in the peninsula, Sabah or Labuan would have to obtain a letter of confirmation from the Head of Department in which the letter states the return date. Such documents are to be sent to SDMC via the state government’s website.
As for Sarawakians stranded in the peninsula, Sabah and Labuan, and are unable to undergo Covid-19 screening, they are allowed to return to Sarawak under the condition that they undergo Covid-19 testing upon arrival.
“The cost of Covid-19 screening for (these Sarawakians) will be fully borne by the Sarawak Government”, said Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas at a press conference today, noting that the cost of each Covid-19 test is around RM200 to RM300.
SDMC today also announced the reopening of barber shops and hair salons on June 9, but only hair cutting services are allowed. Several Nature Reserve parks, including Samajaya, Bukit Lima, Bukit Sembiling and Piasau will also be reopened on June 8 in compliance with the SOP issued.
A question about the SOP for barber shops and hair salons was raised, in which Uggah responded with “we will get the details, we have to make sure minimum contact and also maybe during the hair cutting session there’s coughing, then the hairdresser should be careful”.
In terms of inter-district travels’ resumption, Uggah reported that the SDMC is still “looking at the situation”.
“Now it’s the eighth day that we are zero. If we reach up to 14th day of zero cases when the whole Sarawak would be green, once we reach green status throughout Sarawak, then only will we consider whether to continue restriction to the district.
“This morning we had a long discussion, we understand there are a lot of complications, a lot of restrictions, so we are looking at the various options. One of the options is to see whether we can only limit it to two inter-division travel, or we open all of Sarawak.
“We will look at the situation in Sabah and in Peninsular Malaysia,” Uggah explained.
News of 30 Malaysians, including 10 Sarawakians currently stranded in Nigeria broke out yesterday, and Sarawak Housing Minister Dr Sim Kui Hian reportedly tried to intervene by requesting Putrajaya for an evacuation flight for those stranded Malaysians, as reported by Dayak Daily.
“I have communicated with YB Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi, and he has brought this issue to the cabinet and we wait for what to follow. We are all very concerned about the welfare of our people wherever they are,” Uggah told a press conference today, urging the stranded Sarawakians to contact the Sarawak government for assistance without hesitation.
SDMC today reported zero new Covid-19 cases, which marks the eighth consecutive day of zero new cases; the total number of Covid-19 cases remains at 552. Three new discharged cases were reported today, which brings the total number of discharged cases to 523 or 94.75 recovery rate.
Twenty new Persons-Under-Investigation (PUI) were reported with and as many as 21 are still pending Covid-19 test results.
As of today, a total of 45,988 Home Surveillance Orders (Quarantine Order) were issued and a total of 36,235 had ended their Home Quarantine Order. Current active Home Surveillance Orders are at 9,753.
