THE officer-in-charge of a police station (OCS) and a school principal in Miri were slapped with hefty compounds “as a lesson to the others” after violating Sarawak’s strict standard operating procedure on Covid-19 prevention, said state disaster management committee chairman,Douglas Uggah.

The deputy chief minister said the police officer was found to have had “an activity that failed to adhere to the SOP” while the principal failed to wear a mask when participating in a gotong royong programme at the school.

With the number of new cases in the state today sky rocketing to an all-time high of 960, Uggah said the time has come to act tougher on those who are negligent and openly flout the SOP.

“We will no longer be hesitant in acting on those who ignore the rules. The spread (of the infection) happened because people continue to ignore the SOP at funerals, weddings and social gatherings,” Uggah said.

Of the 960 new cases, Uggah said the majority of them – 896 or 93% of the cases – are of people who are already in quarantine for having come into contact with positive cases.

The ballooning infection is due in part to another 313 people from the police training school (Pulapol) cluster at Jalan Puncak Borneo – cadets, instructors, officers and their families – being tested positive today.

State Police Commissioner Aidi Ismail said earlier in the day that, so far, 415 people in the school, including 20 teaching staff and their family members, have become infected with the Covid-19 virus.

The school has been placed under the enhanced movement-control order (EMCO) from today until April 29.

The index case was a cadet tested positive at the Kota Sentosa Health Clinic, where he went to get treated for his fever.

By April 19, the Health Department would have screened over 2,600 people in the school for possible infection.

The 313 cases also pushed Kuching district’s infections to 370.

One other district with a high number of cases is Mukah, where 99 of the 103 cases reported came from the new cluster at the Mukah polytechnic, the Jalan Bambangan cluster.

Uggah said Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg and the Commissioner of Police will meet on Monday to find ways tighten the enforcement of SOP in Sarawak. He appealed to managers of institutions such as schools and polytechnics to follow the SOP closely.

He said if there is proof that their negligence had caused a spread, action will be taken against them.

In the meantime, the disaster committee had drawn up new rules that made inter-zone travel extremely difficult.

Sarawak grouped several districts into zones. While travel from one district to another within the zone is permitted, travel to districts outside their zone is not.

Uggah said, based on the analysis, inter-zone travel was responsible for 505 infections and the spawning of eight clusters since January.

He said from Monday, the police have been ordered to issue travel permits to only those in the list of essential services –public transport crew, drivers and attendants of inter-town supply trucks and emergency services. – April 16, 2021.