GEORGE TOWN, Sept 5 — Penang has cancelled all year-end activities and celebrations following the country’s current situation pertaining to the Covid-19 pandemic.

State Tourism Development, Arts, Culture and Heritage Committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin said that all related programmes under his portfolio will be cancelled until the end of the year.

He said that excluding the 2020 Penang Bridge International Marathon which will be held virtually this year, other programmes which have been cancelled are the Penang International Dragon Boat Festival (scheduled to take place on Dec 5-6), Penang Chingay Festival (Dec 12) and Seberang Perai Chingay Parade (Dec 19).

"The decision is made by taking into consideration that public gatherings are not encouraged at this moment, to prevent new clusters, and apart from that, physical distancing will be difficult to impose during the programmes, when members of the public, hundreds of participants and organisers are involved,” he said in a statement here, today.

He added that the decision is also made after Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s announcement on Aug 28 on the extension of Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) to Dec 31 to curb the outbreak.

Meanwhile Yeoh reminded people to always adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) when out and about.

"Penang has achieved green status on Sept 2, and this is an achievement that cannot be taken lightly. It means we cannot be complacent, to prevent new cases,” he said. — Bernama