Sarawak allows CNY reunion dinners between different households - report

 

The Sarawak state government will not limit Chinese New Year family reunion dinners to members of the same household, according to a report.

However, the new rules drawn up by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) will limit such dinners to 20 people and they cannot be held in hotels and restaurants.

“SDMC’s standard operating procedures for reunion dinners are different.

“It takes into account the families of brothers and sisters, with nephews and nieces, who are living in the same town or city and it would be illogical not to allow them to practise this age-old tradition,” The Borneo Post quoted Sarawak Tourism, Arts and Culture Assistant Minister Sebastian Ting (above) as saying.

Reunion dinners are traditionally held on the eve of Chinese New Year, which is Feb 11.

Ting reportedly said the SDMC has also allowed up to 20 close family members to visit at any one time on the first day of the Chinese New Year celebration.

However, the state will be following the federal government’s suit in prohibiting open houses for non-family members, house-to-house visits and lion and dragon troupe dances.

Celebrations at temples or public spaces and the traditional Chinese New Year bazaar in open areas, hotels or shopping malls are also prohibited.

In addition, hosts must prepare thermometers or thermal scanners to check visiting family members who must also be registered through MySejahtera or Qmunity for contact tracing purposes.

The report said the SOPs also stipulate the manual registration of the guests’ personal particulars and contact numbers, while those with a temperature above 37.5°C are advised to go to the hospital or nearest clinic for a medical examination.

Handshakes are prohibited and hosts must ensure guests are seated at least a metre apart.

“It is equally important that the SOPs by the SDMC are complied with due to the pandemic,” Ting was quoted as saying.

Ismail Sabri Yaakob

Yesterday, Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced the Chinese New Year SOPs for the rest of the country.

Among others, celebrations including reunion dinners are to be confined only to family members who are already living together in the same house.

The restrictions quickly drew condemnation from many quarters who said the rules were nonsensical and culturally insensitive, particularly since it would mean reunion dinners would, in effect, be reduced to a normal family dinner.

The National Unity Ministry then said it was appealing to the National Security Council to review the Chinese New Year SOPs.

The restrictions were implemented following the extension of the second movement control order (MCO 2.0) until Feb 18 which covers most of the country except parts of Sarawak.

The extension came with the promise of stricter rules as the prior MCO 2.0 restrictions failed to bring down Covid-19’s infectivity up to Feb 1.

Meanwhile, according to the Health Ministry’s latest figures, Covid-19’s effective reproduction number (R_t) in Malaysia was at 1.09 as of Feb 4.

For Sarawak alone, the figure is similar at 1.10.

R_t is a measure of a disease’s infectiousness. Any number higher than 1.00 means an outbreak is still growing and conversely, any number lower than 1.00 means an outbreak is in shrinking.

An R_t of 1.10, for example, means that every 100 infected persons will spread the disease to an average of 110 other people throughout the course of their illness.

For Covid-19, this usually happens in around five days but could take as long as 14 days.

Sarawak has recorded 2,322 Covid-19 cases in the 14 days up to Feb 4. - Mkini