GEORGE TOWN – Despite a blanket ban on all New Year countdown celebrations, businesses in Penang are still offering smaller-scale dinners to keep the festivities going.
Juru’s Auto City, the venue that usually hosts Penang mainland’s biggest New Year’s Eve celebration with fireworks and performances, will be scaling things down this year, allowing their outlets to take centre stage so private dinners can be held instead.
Auto City Group marketing and events executive Teoh Gini told The Vibes that they will be adhering to government rules when it comes to New Year’s Eve celebrations.
She said that Auto City will remain open to the public, with restaurants running their New Year’s Eve festive specials and hosting buskers to liven up the place.
G Hotel director of communications Christina Tan told The Vibes that the hotel will just be doing a New Year’s Eve dinner without a party or countdown.
They received good response for their Christmas buffet and hope that the available spots for the New Year’s Eve dinner will be filled up too, despite operating at only 50% capacity.
“We are cautious as the pandemic is not yet over. We wish there is a permanent solution to this,” she said.
The general manager of The Light Hotel at Seberang Jaya, Raj Kumar, said that the hotel will also be running a buffet dinner on New Year’s Eve.
“However, there will be no countdown to ring in 2022.”
One of the very few locations in Penang where the countdown to the New Year will be held is The TOP at Komtar.
To comply with SOPs, they will be running an eight-course sit-down dinner, and each guest will be given a countdown party pack. Set at the top of the highest building in the state, guests will enjoy stunning views of Penang’s skyline at the stroke of midnight.
The TOP’s operations director Kevin Michael Lai Tuck Ming said that the celebrations will proceed without the fireworks display and that they will be complying with strict SOPs.
They have also hired additional security workers to ensure there is no crowding, and only those with reservations are allowed into the venue. Customers are also encouraged to conduct Covid-19 self-testing before entering the premises.
Bracing for the threat of the more transmissible Omicron Covid-19 variant and its possible spread due to the festive season, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced on December 16 that only private events with friends and family are allowed during New Year celebrations.
On Christmas day, two cases of the Omicron variant were reported in Penang.
Penang’s Health Department said that the two cases were imported from abroad, stemming from persons who returned from Saudi Arabia after performing the umrah. – The Vibes, December 29, 2021
