Eyes wide open for violators

BUTTERWORTH: Restaurants to supermarkets and hotels are all doing their part to ensure guests and customers abide by standard operating procedure.

Nasi Kandar Beratur restaurant owner Ajmer Ali Liakat said aside from not scanning the MySejahtera, he had not encountered any other serious violations.

“Maybe there are one or two violations of not scanning MySejahtera but we will remind our customers to do so,” he said.

Ajmer has not removed anyone from his restaurant so far but might be tempted to do so if customers repeatedly violate the SOP.

He said most of his customers now only bought takeaways and to make things easier, he has put two stations – one at the entrance and another inside the outlet – for his customers to scan the MySejahtera.

Sunshine Wholesale Mart Sdn Bhd marketing communications manager Bryan Wong said that at his supermarket outlets, the most common violations were not wearing face masks properly and not maintaining physical distancing.

He pointed out the workers would advise customers when they spot such violations.

Berjaya Hotel general manager Tan Yew Jin said the hotel seldom encountered SOP violation among its guests except for one or two cases where their guests forgot to wear face masks after lunch or dinner at the hotel’s cafe.

“Our guests tend to forget that and when we spot such violations, our staff will advise them to put their face masks back on,” he said.

He said it is now a norm for the hotel staff to keep an eye on the observance of Covid-19 SOP among guests.

“We put reminders on televisions in the room so that the SOP will always be the number one priority,” he said.

Prestige Hotel general manager Melvin Ooi said so far, guests at his hotel have been cooperative.

“We do brief and remind guests of the SOP upon check-ins and we do have signs and guides at our hotel public area, as well as in the room,” he said.

Seberang Prai City Council (MBSP) mayor Datuk Azhar Arshad said not wearing face masks properly, failing to maintain physical distancing and not scanning MySejahtera were among the common breaches of SOP.

He said these offences were spotted by the city council’s enforcers during routine checks in the past two years.

Azhar said under Prevention and Control of Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342) and other local council by-laws, MBSP had issued 128 compounds worth RM396,000 as of March 22 this year alone.