KUCHING: All non-Muslim places of worship must submit their respective notifications of reopening to the Unit For Other Religions (Unifor) prior to their reopening on June 20.
Minister-in-charge of Unifor, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas stressed that the reopening notification is subject to places of worship gazetted under the Missionary Societies Ordinance 1967 (Sarawak Cap.106) or under the Charitable Trust Ordinance 1994 and registered with the Registrar of Societies(RoS)under the Societies Act 1966 (Act 355).
“The reopening notification must be made through the headquarters of the places of worships to Unifor via the Borang PP.01/2020. For those without a headquarters, the forms may be submitted directly to Unifor.
“The forms can be downloaded from Unifor’s website at http://www.jkm.sarawak.gov.my and can also be obtained from the headquarters of the places of worships as well as the Resident’s Office and District Office,” Uggah said in a statement on Tuesday.
As for the guidelines and SOPs for the upcoming reopening, he noted that the number of attendees in each worship service must not be more than 100 persons after taking into account the practice of social distancing of at least one metre between individuals.
He added that those who had developed symptoms of fever, cough, or shortness of breath and children under the age of 12 are not allowed to attend worship services.
“For those with chronic illnesses (especially for the elderly), it is advisable to take precautionary measures when attending the worship services.
“In addition to that, other guidelines also approved include disinfection process before and after the worship services, checking of body temperature, the use of face masks, practice social distancing, washing of hands with hand sanitisers, scan QR code or filling in the attendance books or using Mysejahtera or the CovidTrace app,” he pointed out.
Uggah also advised the management of each place of worship to adapt the guidelines issued by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to their respective circumstances and needs.
