A total lockdown, according to players in the tourism and hospitality sector, is necessary to curb the alarming spike of Covid-19 cases.
On 23 June, the Ministry of Education announced changes to school term holidays in order to help schools better plan lessons that had been disrupted by the pandemic and Movement Control Order.
This first phase of the lockdown begins on June 1 and will last until June 14.
Its state government originally planned to permit dining-in in restaurants on June 7, but due to repeated surges in Covid cases, it banned dining-in in restaurants until July 16, and ordered that only restaurant owners and workers who received their first vaccination were allowed to resume their work On 19 July 2021, the Disaster Management Committee of Sibu has ordered that all business operators and their workers must be fulty-vaccinated in order to continue working, and they must show a vaccination certificate at their shops' entrance.
Such a move, he said, will help employers "protect jobs of the people" during these challenging times.
This allows more businesses to be opened up, such as stationary and book shops, computer and telecommunication outlets, barberstores only for haircuts , farmers' markets, and morning markets.