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I SAW a group of adults playing football as I was passing by the Miri City Council football field yesterday evening. Youth were huddled closely, watching from the side of the field.
I saw these youth smoking and chatting away gleefully as the footballers shouted and ran after the ball. None was wearing a mask. Along the main road, there were youth on motorcycles, racing it would seem.
This is Miri, a Covid-19 red zone where 16 deaths and 3,686 infections were recorded as of yesterday evening. Sarawak is also under the conditional movement control order (CMCO).
But from the football match I witnessed and the youth’s carefree attitude, it sure does not look like the CMCO is in place.
I also did not see any enforcement personnel, whether from police or the city council, stopping the football match or issuing fines to the players and spectators.
Similarly, I would see crowds at coffee shops in Miri’s commercial areas daily, with many going maskless.
Church friends in Sibu, Bintulu, Kuching and other parts of Sarawak have told me that they, too, are puzzled by the easy-going attitude of both the public and enforcement agencies amid the CMCO.
One friend in Sibu, which is by far the worst-hit zone in Sarawak, told me that the coffee shops and malls there are filled with people every day, despite the daily increase in Covid-19 deaths and infections.
“What CMCO? What enforcement? It looks like a normal day,” she said.
Yesterday, Sarawak logged five out of the 11 coronavirus fatalities nationwide, the highest daily toll for the state thus far.
The state Disaster Management Committee (DMC) secretariat announced that four of the latest deaths were recorded at Bintulu Hospital, and the other at Sarikei Hospital. There were also 570 new infections in the state yesterday.
Of Sarawak’s 40 districts, 21 are listed as red zones, while nine settlements have been placed under the enhanced MCO.
In view of the virus spread, the CMCO in Sarawak will be extended to at least May 10, said the secretariat.
Is CMCO useful?
State government leaders, in particular Deputy Chief Minister and state DMC chairman Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas, need to ask themselves if the CMCO is helping to halt the Covid-19 wave in Sarawak.
When it was first announced on January 11, the state had 1,428 cases, six clusters and 19 deaths since March last year. As of yesterday evening, it had 153 fatalities, 27,319 infections and 56 active clusters.
On January 11, only Kuching, Sibu and Miri districts were red zones, but the figure has since jumped to 21.
This has prompted many residents to call for the stricter MCO to be imposed. Weighing the current developments, I think that may be the only option left on the table for Uggah and the state government.
They should have the courage to impose a lockdown for at least the next two weeks to see if the infection and death tolls can be lowered.
Businesses and industries can survive a two-week MCO.
Of course, crucial sectors, such as healthcare, banking, food and beverage, and vegetable and meat production, as well as essential services, like vehicle repairs, petrol stations and land transport, should be allowed to continue, albeit scaled down.
It is clear that the CMCO has not been effective in containing Covid-19. Things are getting worse by the day.
Impose the MCO now, with a daily curfew from 10pm to 6am. – The Vibes, April 25, 2021
Stephen Then is a reporter at The Vibes. He is based in Miri