Uggah speaking during a press conference after inspecting the Covid-19 active case detection operation in Kota Samarahan. – Photo by Sarawak Public Communication Unit
KUCHING: The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has not made a decision on the federal government’s move to allow two people to travel in a vehicle in the fourth phase of the Movement Control Order (MCO), which begins today.
Its chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, who is a deputy chief minister, said he had not been notified about the change in ruling, adding that Sarawak currently only allows farmers going to farms to travel in pairs.
“I have not read into it (federal government announcement) yet. For the time being in Sarawak we only allow farmers going to their farms to have a passenger per vehicle. For other civilians we have yet to decide,” he told reporters after inspecting the Covid-19 active case detection operation in Kota Samarahan.
Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob told a press conference in Putrajaya this afternoon that two people could now travel together in a vehicle during the fourth phase of the MCO.
He said the government had decided to relax the previous restriction of ‘one person per car’ ruling after getting feedback from the public.
“We found that there’s a lot of requests to increase the number of people travelling in a car.
“As such, we have decided to allow two people to travel in a car but they must be staying under the same roof and are also immediate family members,” he said.
He said the decision was also made in view of the social distancing among those who live together.
“In terms of social distancing, they are staying under one roof and if there are no positive Covid-19 cases in their household, this means that they are safe.
“That is why we allow immediate family members such as husband and wife, husband and child or wife and child to travel together.
“But it cannot be more than two persons in a car,” said Ismail.