KOTA KINABALU: The government should allow businesses to reopen based on risk assessment, instead of letting it be based on the essential sector.
Kota Kinabalu member of parliament Chan Foong Hin said if the existing approach continued to be used, many economic sectors would end up starving to death despite posing a very low risk of Covid-19 transmission.
Chan, who is Sabah DAP secretary, made the call in support of the Sabah Photographers and Makeup Artists White Flag Movement.
"In fact, not only photographers and makeup artists have to raise white flags, business operators from many other industries also have to do so. Another example is textile merchants.
"These shops that sell textiles and their customers who buy textiles can always maintain social distance and have near to no physical contact.
"However, just because they belong to the special category of 'clothing stores', they are not allowed to operate at all," he said in a statement.
Despite the recent spike of Covid-19 cases in Sabah, he said it was not due to the prison clusters in Kota Kinabalu and Tawau.
The increase in cases this week, which maxed at more than 600 cases for four days, is more related to densely crowded and enclosed living environments.
"Clearly, the question, at the end of the day, is not which economic sectors can be shut down and which can be allowed to operate.
"The real matter of concern should be on managing the actual risk of Covid-19 transmission, to be able to fight the pandemic in line with science and data," he added.
Chan suggested relevant authorities to start using risk assessment in considering the actual risk of various economic industries vis-à-vis Covid-19, so that the economy can be restarted and the number of confirmed cases can be controlled within a confined scope.
"Otherwise, the National Recovery Plan (NRP) will only have a false name, and no real recovery performance will ever be seen."