GEORGE TOWN: Beginning Friday, dine-in will be allowed in hotels, malls and fast-food franchises throughout Penang, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow announced today.
He said a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on the matter will be made by the respective local councils tomorrow.
Chow said the decision for this was reached during the state special security committee meeting today.
He said the dine-in in hotels, malls and fast-food franchises was only the first phase, with dine-in in other premises to be announced in subsequent phases.
"For now, we are only allowing dine-in in hotels, malls and fast-food franchises and not the other premises.
"Approval for dine-in in the other premises will only be decided once the state Health Department refined the matter under phase two," he said in his live message on Facebook today.
Last Friday, Penang kicked off its own 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, unity, resident associations, cooperatives, commodities, forest research, debt management, creative industry, culture and arts.
In his message today, Chow also said that beginning tomorrow Penang would enter the reopening phase, with all sectors and activities allowed by the Federal government to operate under the CMCO, be allowed to operate in the state with strict SOPs.
He added that as for those which were not allowed to operate by the Federal government, it would remain that way.
"For recreational activities, it is only limited to residential neighbourhood garden parks and pocket parks in residential areas.
"As for congregational prayers, we will stick to the SOP used by the Federal government, which also applies to other religions," he further added.
Chow said for the forthcoming Hari Raya Aidilfitri gathering, only seven people would be allowed to gather in flats in the state, after taking the advice from the Health director-general.
Chow said although Penang has been declared a green state, with no positive Covid-19 cases for the past three weeks, Covid-19 tests would continue to be carried out involving the high-risk groups, which included madrasah and tahfiz, foreign workers, home for the aged as well as their carers and those working in the markets.
So far, he stressed, all the test results came back negative.
Meanwhile, Chow also announced four missions under the Penang Next Normal Strategy - Containing the pandemic (C), Adapting our institution to the next normal (A),
Rescuing people and the economy (R) and Empowering Community (E) - or CARE in short.
"With this strategy in place, I am certain that we will be able to bounce back from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Let us CARE for one another and rebuild our state again," he added.