Wee (centre) observing a shopper getting his temperature screened at the Stutong Community Market. Photo by Chimon Upon.
KUCHING: Kuching South City Council (MBKS) is deliberating the cancellation of the annual MBKS Ramadan Bazaar in light of the current Covid-19 pandemic.
Kuching South mayor Dato Wee Hong Seng said that the council would be sitting down with the organisers of the MBKS Ramadan Bazaar to have a meeting before coming to a decision.
“If the (Covid-19) situation is not getting any better, then we might not proceed with the MBKS Ramadan Bazaar because the public’s health is always the top priority for the council.
“We will cancel it if we have to,” Wee told reporters today after launching the provision of body temperature screening and hand sanitisers at the Stutong Community Market.
Speaking about the event today, Wee said that it was an initiative carried out by MBKS as a necessary precaution against the Covid-19 outbreak, especially during the Movement Control Order (MCO) period.
He also noted that there was still a large crowd who would come to the Stutong Community Market to do their grocery shopping on Saturday and Sunday despite the MCO.
“We’re in the middle of the MCO period right now and we want the public to know that they can come to the Stutong Community Market to do their shopping on other days besides Saturday and Sunday, so we want to minimise having too much of a crowd on those days.
“We have decided to check the temperature and sanitise the hands of all shoppers coming into the market because we need to control the crowd that comes in and implement social distancing and make it a practice for the shoppers to do so,” Wee said.
He added that they had set up only one entrance and one exit at Stutong Community Market to facilitate crowd control.
“We would also like to advise members of the public to only let one member of the household to do the shopping and to exit the market as soon as they are done shopping,” he said.
Wee said that after the Stutong Community Market, MBKS would carry out the same body temperature screening and provision of hand sanitisers at the Kenyalang Market and Petanak Market.