GEORGE TOWN: Come Monday, dine-in will be allowed at all food and beverage premises statewide.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the decision was reached during a state executive councillors (exco) meeting on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Chow had announced that dine-in would only be allowed at hotels, malls and fast-food outlets throughout the state, effective today.
"Local authorities, along with the state Local Government exco, and the state Health Department, will come up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the 'phase two of dine-in' involving all other eateries.
"To ease the SOP compliance by the eateries, the state government will introduce a registration system for contact tracing through the Penang Contact Tracer or PGCare application," he announced during a live Facebook session today.
Chow said the PGCare application, a public-private-partnership between the Chief Minister Incorporated and Madison Technologies and supported by Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd, could be accessed via www.pgcare.my or www.penanglawancovid19.com.
He said the PGCare application would be able to replace the particular SOP to manually register the names of every visitor into business premises as required by the National Security Council (NSC).
"In the case of PGCare, only three steps are needed. Scan the QR Code, fill in the details (only name and contact number) and declare to the premises after one checks in. This system not only saves time but also avoids any form of human touch.
"More importantly, one can be assured of the privacy of his or her details given out as only the Penang government can access such information. Information will only be accessed for the need of contact tracing for Covid-19 (upon request from the NSC). The data will only be kept for 30 days before it is automatically deleted from the database.
"As such, we urge the people and all business premises to utilise the use of the system. Just as the name PGCare indicates, we are logging in because we care not only for ourselves but also for our loved ones and our community."
Meanwhile, checks by the New Straits Times at eateries in a shopping mall in Bayan Baru near here, which allowed for dine-in today, showed many of the premises were filled with customers.
Each customer had their temperature and contact details taken before being seated. There was strict compliance of the SOP in terms of social distancing.
Last Friday, Penang kicked off its version of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) – the Penang Gradual Recovery Strategy (PGRS).
On May 3, the Penang government had announced that the CMCO would not be implemented as announced by Putrajaya on May 4.
Chow had instead said Penang would implement the PGRS, which would reopen sectors of the economy in stages from May 8 to 13.
PGRS is divided into three phases – Phase 1 (Preparation Phase) between May 4 to 7, Phase 2 (Familiarisation Phase) between May 8 to 12 when only certain sectors and offices will be allowed to open, and Phase 3 (Reopening Phase) from May 13 onwards, which will see the reopening of the remaining sectors and companies.
Under Phase 1, all sectors are only allowed to do preparatory work to comply with the SOPs. The four-day period is for the state government to come up with comprehensive guidelines especially on enforcement aspects, while also giving time to employers, employees, parents, and others to plan.
The sectors allowed to operate under Phase 2 beginning this Friday are transportation (land and air), food industries (only for takeaways), professional services, manufacturing, finance, gas, mining and quarrying, electrical and electronics, agriculture, fisheries, farming, communication, information technology, e-commerce, environment, water supply and Konsortium (IWK) sewerage, construction, law, security, cleaning, strata management, community credit and mortgages, hotels, retail, government offices, local councils and government-linked agencies.
Sectors allowed to operate under Phase 3 are sports, resident associations, cooperatives, commodities, forest research, debt management, creative industry, culture and arts.
In his message today, Chow said the PGRS had earned praises from world-renowned scientist Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Lam Sai Kit.
He also said Penang earned a mention by Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob for having recorded one of the highest levels of compliance during the CMCO at 98 per cent, alongside Pahang and Melaka.