THE fear that the Covid-19 virus will spread through asymptomatic carriers is why Sarawak banned the “pulai menoa” (returning to longhouses and villages) for the Gawai harvest festival, said Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah. 

He said the outbreak “will have devastating consequences” in rural areas.

Uggah, who chairs the state disaster committee, said the elderly and young children in the care of their grandparents make up the majority of rural residents and are vulnerable to Covid-19.

Citing Health Ministry figures that showed around 63% of those who had died were aged 60 years and above, Uggah said the asymptomatic visitors would be a threat to the majority of the longhouses inhabitants. 

“Some 80.7% of them have history of diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney disease, heart problem and other ailments.”

“For the sake of our aged parents, our ‘aki’ (grandfathers) and ‘ini’ (grandmothers), aunties and uncles and nephews and nieces, it is best that we do not come home.

“We can be infected but remain asymptomatic. Thus unknowingly, we will spread the virus to them. We may create the Gawai cluster,” he said. 

Critics have questioned the need for the ban on ‘ngabang’ (visiting) from one longhouse to another and even between ‘bilek’ within the longhouse when most of these longhouses are in green zones.

They said some longhouses have made themselves more safe by banning non-residents from visiting them since the beginning of the pandemic that had killed 17 people in the state. 

Uggah said if he had allowed the Gawai to be celebrated as usual, implementing and observing the new norm - social distancing, gathering in small numbers - “could be problematic when people are happily celebrating”.

Restrictions imposed  on the Gawai as well as  the Hari Raya celebration last week, he said,  were and are necessary to stop the transmission. 

The Gawai, which falls on Monday, is a major festival for Sarawak’s Dayak. 

It marks the end of the rice harvest and a bountiful harvest usually leads to week-long merriment. – May  30, 2020.