COVID-19 has upended lives and many of the people in Penang are feeling rather lethargic due to the ongoing restrictions on inter-district and inter-state travel.
In order to break the chain of infection, they have been enduring the series of lockdowns since last year, so much so they are suffering from lockdown fatigue.
The state may be in phase two of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) but the travel restrictions are still enforced.
Buletin Mutiara today approached several people for their feedback on whether inter-state travel should be allowed under phase two of the NRP.
Below are the interviewees’ comments:
Datuk Finn Choong, Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce (PCCC) vice-president
“From my point of view, we should change our basic approach to the NRP, which is to acknowledge that the pandemic is to stay with us for a long time.
“Inter-state travel should be allowed with strict standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place.
“We have to be practical now that it is impossible to have zero transmission as we need to adapt with the pandemic within our community.
“As long as we can minimise the spread of the virus, then we should move ahead and open our state borders.
“The ramping of vaccination rate is giving us a boost as well.”
Abdullah Sadiq Mohd Nasir, 32
“I feel that it is necessary for the authorities to reopen the state borders as the cases within the community has shown improvement.
“Many of the cases that happened were factories’ clusters and I hope that the government can ease travel restrictions for us soon.
“It can help to boost our economy once some restrictions are loosened.
“Let’s hope for the best.”
Noor Haniza Abdul Razak, assistant manager
“It is still too early to discuss this as the infectivity rate is still on the rise.
“I am just afraid that the situation will be out of control once the inter-state travel is allowed.
“It is currently alarming as the cases keep on increasing daily. It may worsened if travel restrictions are loosened.
“If the authorities are keen to reopen state borders, they need to make sure that 80% of the adult population are vaccinated.
“They can then consider it with strict SOPs.”
Datuk Lam Tong Ying, Penang Hawkers’ Association president
“I am not supportive of any greenlight for inter-state travel.
“I understand that many industries and sectors are now affected, but we need to think long term. The daily cases keep soaring.
“It’s better for us to be extra vigilant and not to hastily lift the restrictions as of now.
“We need to be patient now.”
P. Kannan, 25, hotel maintenance staff member
“Let’s adopt a wait-and-see approach before deciding to allow inter-state travel.
“There are many clusters that are happening in our country right now and it’s not an ideal move to let people cross state.
“Domestic tourism has been badly affected, but we need to see a bigger picture as the Covid-19 situation is yet to improve.”
Story by Edmund Lee