Tan Yit Sheng
KUCHING (Aug 23): The ban on dine-in from May 12 to July 15 this year did not bring down the number of Covid-19 positive cases, says Kuching Coffeeshop and Restaurant Owners Association committee member Kapitan Tan Yit Sheng.
As such, Tan urged the government to change its approach in handling the pandemic instead of repeating the same mistake when other economic activities are operating as usual.
He stated that the ban would only compound the hardship of food and beverage operators who are consistently adhering to standard operating procedures (SOPs) and should not punished further for mistakes of the irresponsible who refused to observe SOP.
“Also, the recent reported Covid-19 clusters were not from food and beverage sector but workplace and villages.
“I earnestly asked these healthcare experts to visit coffeeshops and engage with us. My main point is food and beverage sector should not be solely responsible for bringing down cases.”
Tan opined that the decision to ban dine-in must be accompanied by strict enforcement of SOPs and putting a temporarily stop to all economic sectors to be effective in tackling Covid-19.
He added that the public must be self-disciplined as relying on medical experts and a small group of people following the SOPs is not be enough to tackle Covid-19 which is endemic.
“Society must learn to co-exist with Coronavirus and any policies must balance saving lives and livelihood,” he concluded.