Have a tighter lockdown for next two weeks, says MTUC

 

MTUC has asked the government to tighten the SOPs and focus on essential sectors only.

PETALING JAYA: The government has to tighten SOPs, correct the mistakes of the last two weeks and enforce a stricter lockdown, now that it has been extended another two weeks, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) said.

MTUC deputy president Mohd Effendy Abdul Ghani said it would be much better for businesses and the economy if the government imposed a proper lockdown this time around rather than restricting economic activity with numerous two-week extensions.

He added that Putrajaya should conduct a post-mortem on the past two weeks of the “supposed total lockdown” to see whether or not it had been really effective in mitigating the pandemic.

“In the last two weeks of the so-called lockdown, the international trade and industry ministry (Miti) approved applications from around 128,000 companies to operate. Now, we’re seeing reports of Covid-19 clusters involving workplaces every day.

“So for the following 14 days, the government must tighten the SOPs. Just close more sectors and focus on essential sectors only,” he told FMT, pointing out that cases were still above the government’s own target of less than 4,000 cases a day.

While more sectors should be closed, Effendy also said operation hours could be relaxed, especially for eateries, in order to help them gain more income.

He said the current opening hour of 8am was especially harsh for eateries as they would miss out on the breakfast crowd, especially when those who still have to go to work also have the same business hours.

“Perhaps eateries can be allowed to open from 6am or 7am instead. This is why the National Security Council must do a post-mortem on the past two weeks and improve on the SOPs.”

Senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob had announced that the nationwide movement control order (MCO 3.0) would be extended for another two weeks from June 15 until June 28.

He added that the “positive/negative” essential economic sector list and SOPs for manufacturing, businesses and industries remained the same. The lockdown was slated to end on June 14. - FMT