Loading...
 |
| Restaurants have pleaded to be allowed to open for dine-in customers |
FMT
7/5/2021
PETALING JAYA: Restaurants have pleaded to be allowed to open for dine-in customers during the newly imposed movement control order (MCO) in an open letter and petition to senior politicians.
More than 80 chefs, owners and general managers have launched a petition calling for the reopening of dining-in in restaurants in an open letter to Prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, senior minister for security Ismail Sabri Yaakob and health-director general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
“Unlike hawker stalls, fast food restaurants and other similar outlets, our restaurants are not suited to the delivery/takeaway model. During the past two MCOs, our sales dropped by up to 90%, and we incurred tremendous losses,” they wrote.
“Some of us have had to implement staff pay cuts, incur debts, and may have to close our restaurants if the situation does not improve.”
With strict adherence to SOPs, they said, customers being allowed to dine in have proven to have a relatively low risk of contributing to the spread of Covid-19.
Citing data collected between Feb 22 and April 2, whereby of the 314 new clusters identified, only 0.96% came from restaurants, compared to 38.54% from factories and 15.29% from the community, they said allowing restaurants to operate had not proven to have a large impact on viral transmission.
“There are, of course, some recalcitrant restaurants or bars who flout the SOPs, but the whole industry should not be punished because of the failure of a few.
“We plead with you, sirs, to take our appeal into consideration, and to allow dining in restaurants during the current MCO 3.0.”
Six districts in Selangor went under MCO yesterday, and Kuala Lumpur and parts of Johor, Terengganu and Perak will begin their MCO restrictions from today.
Eateries in these areas are allowed to continue operating but they are limited to delivery and pick-up services only.
The petition to reopen restaurants can be found here.
APPEAL TO ALLOW DINING IN RESTAURANTS DURING MCO 3.0
Loading...
