THE state government is doing all it can to assist residents in areas under Covid-19 lockdown.
Bawang Assan SUPP chairman Senator Robert Lau Hui Yew said this in refuting allegations that the government was not doing enough for affected residents.
“When the movement control order was imposed in Sibu and nearby divisions, the government rolled out food aid to the affected areas amounting to millions of ringgit.
“As there are more than 40 longhouses in Sibu division under targeted enhanced MCO, the residents are still being given food aid, ” he said in a statement.
Lau also dismissed talk that frontliners were not doing enough to help curb the disease.
Security forces comprising police, military and Rela are still on duty in targeted enhanced MCO areas 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Our frontliners have been working extremely hard, ” he said.
On the procedural delays faced by those housed at the quarantine centre in Kolej Laila Taib, Lau said he was made to understand that patients assigned there had to go through several steps before being given their allotted rooms.
“This is because when a person is Covid-19 positive, he or she will have to be picked up and sent to Sibu Hospital where a thorough health examination is done along with X-ray taken.
“They will have to be confirmed as asymptomatic before being transferred to the quarantine centre.”
The process of moving the patient to the quarantine centre, allocation of beds, registration and food arrangements took time, he reiterated.
He added that accommodation, food and transport were all paid for by Sarawak government.
“To say the government has done nothing is demoralising at a time when we all need to come together, ” said Lau.
