Ting (left) helps the staff at a food outlet register for the Covid-19 vaccination through MySejahtera. – Photo by Jane Moh
SIBU (May 18): Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) is considering making it compulsory for all food and beverage operators and their workers to be registered for Covid-19 vaccination for the safety of the public.
SMC chairman Clarence Ting said in line with the move, the council was mulling over a certificate for businesses that have complied; while those who fail to abide by the ruling, could be shut down.
He said the council felt the move could be necessary because the food sector was also a public service and it was its responsibility to keep their customers safe and at the same time, the move would regain the public’s confidence to dine-in.
“We are thinking of doing that after the mass vaccination for all the people in Sibu. We are looking at maybe from the beginning of Sept 1, all food and beverage operators and their workers must already be registered for vaccination.
“We will check and if they have not registered, the council will consider to close their shops until they are registered,” he told reporters during a visit to coffee shops and other food and beverage shops at Jalan Sanyan, Jalan Raminway, and Jalan Morshidi Sidek today.
For the freshest news, join The Borneo Post Telegram Channel
Ting added that food and beverage shops’ licenses were under the SMC and thus, SMC also had a responsibility to ensure that everyone would be safe when visiting the shops.
He pointed out that since the Covid-19 vaccine was being given free by the government, there was no excuse for the people not to register for the vaccination.
Ting also urged all coffee shops and restaurant owners to be proactive in ensuring their staff had done their registration.
“We want the public to be safe. SMC wants the food to be hygienic and we also want the place to be safe.
“We will also consider issuing certificates so that these operators can show to their patrons that their place is safe. This will also help their patrons to come back and for the business to operate as normal again,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, during his visit to the various food and beverage shops today, a team from the SMC public health department helped with the registration process for those who had yet to register.
From his observation, Ting said many people, especially the workers could not be bothered to register for vaccination.
“We need to push this thing for the safety of everyone. So that, we can get the vaccine fast and we can dine-in fast and then we can go back to normal life and people can do normal business again,” he said.
Thus, Ting said the council will continue to do the visitation to the food and beverage operators, to the Sunday market and the night market as well and encourage people to register for vaccination.
He said Sibu has about 700 coffee shops, excluding restaurants.
Few days ago, Ting had visited the Sibu Central Market and he also found that there were still many who did not register for the vaccination due to misconceptions about the vaccine or they wanted to wait for certain vaccines before registering.
He said he was made to understand that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States had said that those who had been vaccinated will not infect other people if they are tested positive.
“That is why I want to come out and ask people to register for vaccination,” he said.
He also said that vaccines were the only solution to suppress Covid-19 at the moment.