FOLLOWING concerns raised by the people, the Penang government has urged the National Security Council (NSC) to review the standard operating procedures (SOPs) for dine-ins at eateries under Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan (NRP).
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, in a press conference today, hoped that operators or workers at eateries should at least be inoculated with one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to ensure the safety of the people.
“We have had several discussions after taking into account concerns that were raised by the people.
“With this, we sincerely hope that the SOPs can be reviewed once again for the benefit of everyone.
“This has got nothing to do with the operations, but just to create a sense of security among the people when they wish to dine-in at eateries,” Chow said after visiting the Penang Covid-19 mass screening (PSC-19) in Padang Kota today.
While it is mandatory for customers to be fully vaccinated before they can dine-in, the current SOP doesn’t necessarily apply the same for operators or workers.
Earlier, George Town OCPD Asst Comm Soffian Santong had said that NSC was clear that only customers must be fully immunised, and not the workers.
However, customers are entitled to make their own decisions as to whether they want to dine-in or not based on information of how many workers at a particular outlet are inoculated.
Separately, Chow said starting this week, the state Health Department would gather statistics (positive and negative Covid-19 cases) based on the antigen rapid test kit (RTK-Ag) testing only.
“Previously, statistics were obtained based on the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing.
“With RTK-Ag, we can expect new Covid-19 cases to shoot up in the state. Our positivity rate at the moment is 11%.
“When the rate drops below 10%, the health authorities would then revert to the original protocol of using PCR testing to obtain the statistics,” Chow added.
Story by Kevin Vimal
Pix by Chan Kok Kuan
Video by Noor Siti Nabilah Noorazis