New rule to enter state

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Malaysians who wish to enter Sarawak must now get interstate travel permit from police first before applying to SDMC, says Uggah

Douglas Uggah

KUCHING: All Malaysians including Sarawakians who wish to travel to the state must first apply for a
police permit to do so before applying to the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), says Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah.

The committee chairman said without the police permit, SDMC will not approve the applications of those who want to enter Sarawak.

“This rule is in line with the directive by the federal government on interstate travel restrictions,” he said during the committee’s daily press conference on Covid-19 yesterday.

Uggah said upon getting police permission, travellers who want to enter Sarawak need to make an online application to SDMC via http://sdmc.sarawak.gov.my, at least 12 hours before entering the state.

On the same note, he said the state government will continue to enforce strict restrictions and screen all applications to enter the state, due to the fact that many large Covid-19 cluster cases in Sarawak were brought in by those arriving from overseas or other states in the country.

“Realising that reality, we are discouraging people from going back to their hometowns for Gawai or Hari Raya,” he added.

Uggah revealed that out of the 544 positive cases recorded in the state as of yesterday, 21 were imported cases from overseas whereby 10 were from Indonesia, four from England, and one each from Holland, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States, Singapore and Brunei.

At the same time, he said 49 of the total cases were brought in from other states, whereby 39 originated from the Sri Petaling cluster of which seven were subsequently detected in Debak, Betong.

For the Kuching Conference cluster, Uggah said 68 out of the 190 cases were detected outside Kuching, including 55 in Samarahan, nine in Serian, two in Miri and one each in Sri Aman and Bintulu.

“The above pattern has to stop. Thus the public are advised to avoid interstate or inter-district movement to prevent the transmission of this disease into Sarawak especially into the rural areas.

“Together, we all play an important role to protect Sarawak from the second wave of Covid-19,” he said.