Dato Sri Lau Kueng Chai
SIBU: Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) vice-treasurer Dato Sri Lau Kueng Chai calls on the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to immediately implement the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) in the most severely Covid-19 infected zones in Sibu district.
He said the big increase in the Covid-19 positive cases detected in Sibu District was truly a cause for concern.
“Strict enforcement needs to be taken to prevent the outbreak from getting worse,” he said in a media statement.
Lau said although Sibu had implemented the MCO since Jan 16, the number of positive Covid-19 cases detected did not get lower but even increased.
As a result, SDMC decided to divide Sibu districts into 31 zones so that the zone with an explosive rise in the number of Covid-19 cases detected would be put under EMCO.
According to the latest data provided by the SDMC as at Feb 16, there were 114 confirmed cases in Zone 7 Jalan Tiong Hua, 63 cases at Zone 1 Jalan Sukun/Lada and 64 cases at Zone 28 Permai.
“Since the MCO cannot effectively help reduce the number of positive cases, we need to replace it with the EMCO. In this way, hopefully, it will help minimise getting the people affected.”
Lau added that the wait for the result of the Covid-19 swab test was too long, thus there is need for the relevant authorities to speed up the process of releasing the results.
“Sometimes, the result was only released five or six days after the test was taken.
“In between those five to six days, these people who took the swab test could have been to several places and in the event that their results were Covid-19 positive, they could already have spread the virus to other places.”
Lau also called on Sibu Health Department to request for additional manpower and other logistics support from SDMC to help overcome the manpower shortage in Sibu division.
“The people of Sibu have suffered tremendously for the past months and let us all work together to bring the outbreak under control soonest.”