KUCHING, April 22 — The state government will not be hasty in putting Kuching district under an enhanced movement control order (EMCO) as many things need to be taken into consideration, Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah stressed today.

"If you look at the number of positive cases of coronavirus (Covid-19), there are 212 of them at present.

"So, we have not reached a level where Kuching district can be locked down or placed under EMCO,” he said in his daily media briefing on the updates of the coronavirus in the state.

"We have to be careful. We don’t want to use a shotgun to kill a fly,” he stressed.

He said SDMC has identified places in Kuching district with positive cases, but these were not concentrated in any small area.

He said the positive cases are scattered all over large areas of Kuching district as well as Samarahan district.

"There seems to be a pattern, but it has not been established yet,” he said.

Both Kuching and Samarahan (67 positive cases as of today) have been classified as red zones for having more than 40 positive cases of Covid-19.

"As I have said we are studying the distribution map of the positive cases. We can see in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur where EMCO has been implemented.

"It is a successful operation and I understand one of the places in Kuala Lumpur, they managed to discover 30 people who were positive,” he added, stressing that EMCO is an effective strategy, but Sarawak must be careful before implementing it.

He said putting district totally under lock-down should not be done hastily as Kuching City in the district is both state administrative capital and commercial centre.