The group advised Dayaks working in towns to stay home and refrain from inter-district travel. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
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KUCHING, May 25 — A group of Dayak medical professionals, led by Professor Datuk Dr Andrew Kiyu of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and the state Health Department, today pleaded with Dayaks working in towns not to return to their longhouses for the Gawai Dayak celebration on June 1 and 2.
They also advised the Dayaks not to hold open houses and avoid Gawai visiting (ngabang) to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections.
“In other words, please stay at home and do not make any inter-district movements.
“By limiting our movements during this Gawai celebration, we can help to reduce the risks of Covid-19 transmission,” they said in a joint statement.
They said the Dayaks should instead celebrate the festival with their family members only in the same household and they must follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) announced by the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC).
To the Dayaks in the longhouses and villagers, the group advised them to avoid holding the Gawai celebration in the common area or ruai and to not organise cockfighting events.
“Unlike in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic affected mainly the urban areas in Sarawak, this year the virus has spread to most of the rural areas.
“The number of longhouses that had to be placed under the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) had also increased,” they said, adding that the number of clusters in Sarawak had also increased, with the majority occurring due to poor compliance with the current SOPs.
“Among the contributing factors for these clusters are social gatherings, birthday celebrations, wedding events, funerals, cockfighting events and inter-district movement. In each cluster, the number of cases involved could be up to a few hundred,” they said.
They said in the past few months, the surge of Covid-19 cases has been far higher than the same time last year.
“There were 152 deaths in the period of January to April 2021. In addition, in the last few weeks, Sarawak had recorded between 300 and 600 cases per day, while most of the hospital beds that were meant to be used for general illnesses have to be converted and used for Covid-19 cases.
They said beds in Intensive Care Units (ICU) are insufficient to cope with the increased number of cases while the quarantine centres are also insufficient.
Apart from Dr Kiyu, who is also the Sarawak Covid-19 Advisory Group (SCOVAG) chief advisor, the others issuing the joint statement are Betong Division medical officer Dr Johnny Pangkas, Kuching Division health officer Dr Eunice Melissa and state Health promotion officer Gabriel Alexis.