Sibu Municipal Council chairman Clarence Ting, who inspected the market on Tuesday , said it was not in favour of another closure like the one in February despite advice from the Health Ministry.
"It sounds easy to just say 'close the market'. The issue here is not to close it for another two weeks but to make it safer for the public," Ting said."This time we will not close the whole market as all the hawkers will suffer. If, for example, a case is detected in the vegetable section, we will only cordon off that area for three days for sanitisation work to be carried out," he said.
The other preventive measure will be to install fencing at the four corners of the market which would allow the number and flow of visitors to be controlled. The market was previously closed from Feb 8-28 after 47 cases were reported in the first week of February.Ting added that when the market was reopened on March 1, a total of 700 people had to go for swab tests.
"If we close and reopen the market, we cannot just let the traders resume business. They will need a swab test again," he said.Article type: metered