Coffee shop operators, dine-in customers in Sibu urged to follow guidelines during CMCO

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Ting (right) speaking to the owner of a coffee shop on the SOP.

SIBU: Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting has urged all coffee shop operators and dine-in customers to always follow the guidelines given during the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) period.

He reminded them that it takes everyone’s cooperation to contain the spreading of Covid-19 pandemic.

Ting, who was monitoring the situation on the ground today, said generally, the compliance of the coffee shop owners is good and only few of them did not fully comply with the standard operation procedures (SOP) given.

“Generally, compliance is surprisingly good, but there are some are not complying, so I spent the whole morning advising them.

“There is a restaurant doing buffet and allowed people to take the food themselves. I told them that it is not allowed, and the workers must take food for the customers. Customers can eat there, but they cannot take the food themselves; buffet is not allowed.

“Many of them did not get the details of the customers, but I advised them to do it to protect themselves,” he said.

Ting said such responsibility does not just apply to coffee shop owners but also members of the public.

During his observation today, Ting said he saw some people were still sitting in a table where there was no social distancing with one another.

“These people, they know what they should do, but they are not practising social distancing; they continue to do this the old way. I do not understand why they do this,” he pointed out.

He said no one should keep relying on enforcement officers as everyone has a conscience to do what they are ought to do.

He said while he could give coffee shops owners warning, the enforcement officers could give them more than that.

“We are not here to enforce a law, we are here to tell them that if you continue with such behaviour, the chance of Covid-19 spreading is good. We not here to prevent you from doing your business or prevent you from dining-in,” he added.

He also said some shops still chose to do takeaways businesses for safety purposes while others decided not to open for dine-in first as they did not understand what they should do to open for dine-in.