KUCHING: The Sarawak disaster management committee will meet on Thursday (July 8) to discuss the state’s preparations to transition to Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, who chairs the committee, said the meeting would discuss whether or not Sarawak should be divided into zones and how this would be done.
“Our preparations will also include assessing the Covid-19 situation in every district,” he said after attending a briefing on development projects in his Bukit Saban constituency at the Spaoh sub-district office on Wednesday (July 7).
Uggah said the state would use the NRP’s three threshold value indicators in moving from Phase One to Phase Two and subsequent phases.
The indicators are daily Covid-19 cases dropping below 4,000, bed usage in intensive care units at a “moderate” level, and 10% of the population being fully vaccinated.
Five states – Perlis, Kelantan, Perak, Pahang and Terengganu – transitioned to Phase Two on Monday (July 5).
“If our daily figures of positive cases continue to demonstrate a downward trend as in the past few days, we should be moving to Phase Two soon,” Uggah said.
On the declining number of cases in Sarawak, he said this could be due to the movement restrictions during the NRP’s Phase One and the state’s vaccination programme.
“The purpose of the movement restrictions is to get people to stay home and not travel, thus breaking the chain of transmission.
“To a certain extent, the drop may also be due to our active vaccination programme.
“But we cannot really be sure as we have yet to complete our target of vaccinating 2.2 million people,” he said.
