Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah at the Covid-19 press conference today. Also seen is Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian. – Photo by Roy Emmor
KUCHING (Feb 4): The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) will discuss tomorrow ways to beef up enforcement of standard operating procedures (SOP) for longhouses and villages under lockdown, said its chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
Among the suggestions to be considered during the meeting would be to appeal to the People’s Volunteer Corps (Rela) members to come forward and help the police and armed forces to enforce lockdowns.
He said this decision came after discovering high concentration of cases coming from a single longhouse, signifying that some of the residents in longhouses under lockdown may have violated the SOP.
“We found out there are illegal paths or ‘jalan tikus’ some longhouse residents used to go in and out. Apart from that there seems to be some unnecessary movement and gathering in the longhouse.
“When the longhouse is under lockdown, you (longhouse residents) should not be gathering or have social activities in the ‘ruai’ (common corridor). You should be confining yourselves in your ‘bilek’ (room), because if you are sick, you can infect others when you are close to each other.
“Like what we see today, one of the longhouses I don’t want to name, has 74 new positive cases, because they did not confine themselves to their own ‘bilek’, had a gathering and infected each other,” Uggah said during a press conference today.
MORE TO COME
The post SDMC to tighten longhouse lockdown after breach discovered appeared first on Borneo Post Online.