Rapelson Richart Hamit
KUCHING (July 10): The government should implement the full Movement Control Order (MCO) given that the existing MCO nationwide has failed to reduce the number of Covid-19 positive cases, said Persatuan Anak Istimewa Sarawak (Perais).
Its president Rapelson Richard Hamit yesterday said that in the current MCO, many business sectors were allowed to operate while vehicle movement seemed normal as if there was no movement restriction.
He added that despite the implementation of the MCO, Malaysia recorded 8,868 daily Covid-19 cases on Friday, with Selangor recording the highest number of cases with 4,152 followed by Kuala Lumpur with 1,133 cases.
“Because the current nationwide MCO has failed to bring down the number of positive cases, we recommend that the full MCO be implemented only for states recording 500 daily cases and above.
“For states that record less than 500 daily cases, they should implement the conditional MCO,” he said in a statement.
He said that based on Friday’s statistics, states recording less than 500 daily cases such as Sarawak, Sabah, Johor, Penang, Kelantan, Kedah, Melaka, Pahang, Terengganu, Labuan, Putrajaya and Perlis should be implementing the Conditional MCO which would allow more sectors to operate with strict standard operating procedures.
Rapelson said that Perais also requested that the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) implement the CMCO, given that Sarawak has daily cases of less than 500 cases.
He also stressed that “dine in” should be allowed in eateries and restaurants in Sarawak.
He said other sectors that are considered essential services such as construction, traditional health businesses like massage centres run by the disabled, barbershops, electrical shops, clothing stores and other sectors should also be allowed to open with strict SOPs.
“Perais has received complaints that many small business including the disabled traders have lost their source of income as a result of this ‘half-cooked’ MCO.
“The Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) provided is also not enough to cover the families of those who are already married and the disabled traders whose BPR had been cancelled because they have received business grants,” he said.
Rapelson believes the solution to the pandemic is to achieve cluster immunity through vaccination in order to reduce the risk.