Uggah: S’wak govt will only decide on inter-state travel after official notice from fed govt

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The state government will only decide once it has received official notice from the federal government. Bernama Photo

KUCHING: The Sarawak government has yet to receive official notice on the barring of inter-state travel from its federal counterpart, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

“We have not received any official information on this but we really support the policy,” he said when asked to comment on the latest announcement by Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob today that inter-state travel will no longer be allowed during the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) period.

However, Uggah, who is also State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman, pointed out that there are Sarawakians in other states of the country who may need to come back to Sarawak due to certain circumstances.

“This morning, we were told that there are 3,742 Sarawakians who are already booking tickets to fly back to Kuching.

“We were asked if we welcome them back. We do welcome them but they have to comply with requirements of our quarantine and so on,” he said.

As such, he said the state government will only decide once it has received official notice from the federal government.

“We will respond after getting official notification,” he remarked.

Ismail in his press conference in Putrajaya today said the federal government has decided not to allow inter-state travel and those who try to sneak back to their hometowns will be compounded by authorities on the spot and asked to turn back.

He said 2,412 people had tried to travel inter-state yesterday despite repeated calls by the government not to do so.