Enforce MySejahtera checks, bosses urged

Following SOP: A customer writing down his particulars on a logbook before entering a restaurant in George Town. — ZHAFARAN NASIB/The Star

GEORGE TOWN: It is more important for business operators to enforce MySejahtera checks now since the pink quarantine band has been replaced with the digital Home Surveillance Order, said experts.

Penang Hospital infectious disease unit head Datuk Dr Chow Ting Soo said businesses need to have someone at the entrance to ensure that only customers with the blue MySejahtera status (low risk) or yellow status (casual contact) will be allowed to enter the premises.

“The checks are not only to ensure those fully vaccinated are allowed inside premises but positive cases or contacts with positive cases are denied entry,” she said when commenting on business outlets becoming lax in screening customers’ vaccination status.

Checks at restaurants in the Little India enclave here found that only one out of seven or eight eateries enforced checks on MySejahtera status with a person standing at the scanning desk at the entrance.

Outlet owners cite the shortage of manpower as one of the reasons why they are unable to impose stricter MySejahtera check on customers.

“We had 20 workers before, now we have only 10. At peak hours, we cannot afford to have one person stationed at the shop’s entrance, although we know it is important to do the checks,” said restaurant manager J. Kathirveloo, 38.

He, however, said that when there are fewer customers, there will be a worker at the entrance to check the MySejahtera and vaccination status.

K. Visvanathan, 48, who manages a restaurant in Penang Street, said business had only recently started picking up.

“We are coping with the shortage of workers as many had left during the movement control order. We have to optimise with the number of workers left behind,” he added.

A saree shop owner in Market Street said: “It is not that we don’t want to enforce checks or (don’t) understand the risk involved, but presently, our priority is our business.”

Over at a hardware shop in Chulia Street, the store owner who only wished to be known as Ah Choon said he uses a plastic chain to deter people from walking into his shop because he wants to ensure only those fully vaccinated were allowed in.

“We do not allow more than six people in at any one time and customers willingly show their vaccination status before coming in.

“I do not want to take any risk of allowing infected people in, thus many just get their items from outside the shop, which is easier for us,” the 55-year-old explained.

State health committee chairman Dr Norlela Ariffin said she would highlight to the police and Health Department on the need for stricter enforcement on vaccination status checks at business outlets here.

“We cannot let our guard down and must ensure all those who enter any business premises are free from the Covid-19 virus, and this should be strictly checked at entrances,” she said.