MIRI – Malls and supermarkets that refuse to limit the number of shoppers in their premises must be closed down immediately, said Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing.
There are many malls and supermarkets that refuse to implement crowd control or limit the number of shoppers, he added.
Tiong, who is Progressive Democratic Party president, said he is very worried as there are an increasing number of Covid-19 infections involving shopping centres and supermarkets, including the Jalan Tg Batu cluster in Bintulu.
“These shopping centres and supermarkets have temperature checks, registration logbooks, and MySejahtera codes – but they do not implement crowd control,” he said in a statement today.
“Many have refused to limit the number of shoppers allowed at any one time. This is very risky. All it takes is one person with Covid-19 and the virus will spread to many in the premises.”
Tiong said he has personally asked the Bintulu division Disaster Management Committee to check all supermarkets in the district.
Last week, three Covid-19 clusters in malls and supermarkets were found over three consecutive days: one each in Bintulu (March 17), Sibu (March 18), and Miri (March 19).
Tg Batu state assemblyman Chiew Ching Sing was the first to sound the alarm over the absence of crowd control in supermarkets in his constituency, including the one at Jalan Tanjung that resulted in a cluster.
It then followed that Sibu and Miri each had a Covid-19 outbreak happen at a big supermarket that was inside a multi-storey departmental store.
As of yesterday, about 150 people have been infected related to these three shopping centres.
The death toll in Sarawak stands at 96 as of yesterday evening, with about 14,000 infections. – The Vibes, March 21, 2021
