Datuk Sebastian Ting
MIRI (Feb 5): Sarawak does not confine the Chinese New Year (CNY) reunion dinner to only family members in the same household in its Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP), said Sarawak United People’s Party secretary-general Datuk Sebastian Ting.
He added, however, that the SOP drawn up by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) allows up to 20 people at the dinner and it cannot be held in hotels or restaurants.
“SDMC’s SOP for reunion dinner is different,” Ting, who is the tourism, arts and culture assistant minister, told The Borneo Post.
“It takes into account the families of brothers and sisters, with nephews and nieces, who are living in the same town or city and it would be illogical not to allow them to practise this age-old tradition.”
Ting was contacted over Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s announcement on the CNY SOP yesterday.
The Federal minister has been widely panned for announcing that the customary CNY family reunion dinner and celebration in general was confined to only members of the same household.
However, he pointed out that Sarawak was allowed to decide its own CNY SOP, indicating that the rules may differ as Sarawak is not bound by widespread movement control order (MCO) like the rest of the country..
Also unlike the federal SOP, Ting said SDMC has allowed up to 20 close family members to visit at any one time on the first day of the celebration in the state although open houses for non-family members, house-to-house visits, and the lion and dragon dance was prohibited.
“It is equally important that SOP by SDMC is complied with due to the pandemic circumstances,” said Ting.
Also prohibited this year were celebrations at temples or public spaces and the traditional Chinese New Year bazaar in open spaces, hotels or shopping malls.
Under the disease prevention protocols for Chinese New Year celebrations, SDMC also requires hosts to prepare thermal scanner or temperature scanning tools while visiting members must also be registered with MySejahthera or Qmunity for contact tracing purposes.
The other requirements include manual registration of the guests personal particulars and their contact number while those with body temperature of 37.5 degrees Celsius are prohibited from entering and advised to go to the hospital or nearest clinic for medical examination.
Handshakes are also prohibited while hosts are to ensure seating arrangement must be at least one metre apart.
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