STUDENTS living on campus in Sarawak’s institutions of higher learning and school boarding houses have now been barred from leaving their campus and schools, even though there are no classes until May 3.

“They are not allowed to return home. They are required to remain in their hostels, dormitories for the safety of themselves and their families,” State Disaster Management Committee chairman Douglas Uggah said today.

Yesterday, all educational institutions in the state’s 21 districts that are Covid-19 red zones were ordered shut effective today, for the next two weeks, under new rules to break the chain of coronavirus infections in the state.

Ordered closed, too, were nurseries, kindergartens, Chinese middle schools, polytechnics, private and public universities, and tuition centres.

However, the tuition centres are permitted to open to guide students sitting for the SPM and STPM exams.

These latest movement restrictions by the State Disaster Management Committee came as the number of new cases today shot to 600, the third day in a row that Sarawak topped other states in daily new cases. There was also one death from the virus infection reported.

In addition to ordering university students to remain in campus, Uggah said the disaster management committee at the divisional level have also drawn up new circuit breaker rules to tackle the pandemic, peculiar to their zone.

In the Sibu, Selangau and Kanowit zones, for example, operating hours for essential services are from 6am to 8pm and police permits are required for operations. However, there is no such rule in the Kuching zone, which comprises districts under the Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions.

A division is an administrative area headed by a resident and depending on its size, could have between two and three districts.

Business operating hours also differ from one zone to another.

In the Sarikei zone, operating hours are from 6 am to 7pm while in the Kuching zone, it is up to 10pm. In most other zones, hours are from 6am to 8pm.

Different zones also allow a different number of passengers in private cars.

Bintulu has also become the only zone in the state that has made it compulsory for those wishing to enter it to show proof that they have taken the real-time reverse transcriptase (RT–PCR) Covid-19 test and showing a negative result.

The number of new cases detected in Bintulu, an oil and gas town, today is 110.

Sibu comes a close second with 98, and the state’s most populated district, Kuching, with 83.

The sole death in the state today is of a 74-year-old man in Sarikei.

Sarawak also reported three new clusters – the Pasar Ikan Sebiew in Bintulu, Sg Rian in Meradong and Kg Tengah in Betong. – April 20, 2021.