SIBU, Aug 29 — Sibu Coffee Shop and Restaurant Owners Association deputy officer of general affairs Hii Hiong Siu observes that the ban on dine-in at eateries due to the spike in Covid-19 cases has once again caused hardship to all food and beverage operators.

He said coffee-shops would face a more difficult situation should they be forced to only run takeaway operations.

"Our business cannot sustain only on takeaway business. We also acknowledge that the spike in Covid-19 cases has hit us hard this time,” he told The Borneo Post here.

Since August 25 this year, Sibu has returned to recording Covid-19 cases in the three digits.

Responding to Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting’s statement about the high likelihood of dine-in not being allowed at eateries here again due to poor compliance with the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOP), Hii said such directive would be unfair to the coffee-shop owners and workers who had been adhering strictly to the rule all this time.

"Just because there were some operators who did not follow the SOP, and you decided to close all the coffee-shops in Sibu.

"I hope the relevant authorities would consider to only take action against those who have failed to adhere strictly to SOP,” he pointed out.

Hii suggested that the SMC enforcement division to conduct frequent patrols and tighten their enforcement to ensure that all coffee-shop operators would abide by the SOP.

Nonetheless, he said should the Sibu Division Disaster Management Committee (SDDMC) decide to ban dine-in to curb the spread of Covid-19 in Sibu, the association members would accept the decision and cooperate with the authorities in upholding the SOP. — Borneo Post