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KUCHING: Interstate travel will now require a police permit, says Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) Chairman, Senior Deputy Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah.
He explained that this decision was made by the National Security Council (NSC), in view of the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Labuan.
“Traveling between states from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Kuching and from Kuching to KLIA, as well as between Kuching and Kota Kinabalu now requires a permit from the police before commencing the journey.
“As such, SDMC also requires that applications to enter the state made using the enterSarawak application also require the police permission to be attached,” he said yesterday at a press conference here.
To further curb the spread of the disease, Uggah said that SDMC has decided to control the movement at the Merapok and Sidumin borders.
He said security agencies will increase the number of personnel to patrol the borders, especially along ‘jalan tikus’ (illegal entry points).
“Patrols will be stricter and more frequent along the borders with Kalimantan,” he said.
On a related issue, he said that SDMC is ready to help Sabah if there are any instructions from the National Security Council (MKN).
“All movements in Sabah are under the leadership of the MKN. If there is any instruction from MKN, SDMC is ready to help but at the same time we must also protect ourselves.
“No one can predict what will happen tomorrow, so Sarawak must be prepared,” Uggah added.
According to him, Sarawak is now preparing to improve its testing capacity.
“Right now we are doing about 2,000 a day. We hope to increase it to 3,000 and our goal is to see that the result comes out in 24 hours, ”he said.
Uggah also said the state is strengthening the workforce of its contact tracing team to ensure that close contacts can be quickly identified and tested.
“This is one of the strategies to make sure that we can stop the spread of the disease and contain it.
“Those are the strategies that we are now planning to prepare for Sarawak,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sarawak Department of Health (Public Health) Deputy Director Dr. Rosemawati Ariffin shared that Sarawak has so far sent 19 of its medical staff to Sabah.
“The category of staff is mostly doctors and also nurses and medical assistants.
“We will await any requests from Sabah through the Ministry of Health, as we send them on the instructions of the ministry. We will see the situation, if it is necessary to send more personnel, “he said.
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