THE federal government’s decision to lift the inter-district travel ban on Friday does not apply to Sarawak.

State disaster committee chairman Douglas Uggah clarified this today, saying the travel restriction remained in place in Sarawak until March 15.

The disaster committee has divided the state into zones according to the severity of the Covid-19 outbreak in the area. Travel between the zones has been prohibited since before the Chinese New Year.

The National Security Council yesterday announced that inter-district travel will be permitted from Friday in Malaysia “except for Sabah”.

This had caused some confusion in Sarawak as the state’s travel curbs were in effect until March 15.

“Travel from one zone to another in Sarawak is still banned except with permission from the police,” Uggah said in his daily Covid-19 media conference today.

Meanwhile, Uggah said the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) for the Sibujaya flats and Townvilla residential estate in Sibu will be lifted at midnight today.

The lockdown was to enable active case detection.

Uggah said 6,818 residents in the two areas have been screened for infection, 277 of whom have tested positive.

He said the EMCO was lifted after new infections showed a significant decline in Townvilla and “a large part” of the flats.

The EMCO remains in place for seven blocks of the Sibujaya flats until March 11. – March 3, 2021.
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