KUCHING, May 2 — Sarawak has decided not to allow the reopening of businesses on May 4 under the conditional movement control order (CMCO) Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced yesterday, the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) said today.
SDMC chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah said the state government has opted to maintain all the directives under the three phases of the movement control order (MCO) to remain in force for now.
“However, Sarawak will announce in stages the re-opening of economic activities and other sectors.
“This will be done after every minute detail of the standard operating procedures and guidelines are studied on the re-opening of the economic sectors,” Uggah said in a statement.
He said the Sarawak government fully respected the prime minister’s announcement on the need to relax the MCO in order to re-open the economy on Monday.
“However the state government has decided to study the implications of the re-opening of such economic activities, such as which sectors are allowed to re-open, when and to what extent they will be allowed to re-open.
“For this purpose, the SDMC intends to make a decision after it has studied the changes to the regulations in Act 342 pursuant to the announcement by the prime minister,” he said, referring to the latest gazette notification on the enforcement of CMCO issued under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases 1988.
Uggah, who is also the deputy chief minister, said the SDMC must ensure that the re-opening of the economic activities and sectors suits Sarawak’s circumstances.
“Taking into account Sarawak’s local situation in terms of the Covid-19 cases, logistic capability, the capacity of the Health Department and its geographical circumstances, the SDMC has found that many of the standards of compliance of the re-opening of the economic activities will not be conducive in the state,” he said.
Uggah reminded that any economic sectors that have received approval from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) during the fourth phase of MCO, are required to get the state government’s approval through the SDMC for their applications to be reviewed before they are allowed to operate.
