KUCHING: Offices of non-Muslim houses of worship in Sarawak are required to submit notification forms to the Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) before reopening their premises from June 20.
Unifor said in a statement today the reopening only involved houses of worship gazetted under the Missionary Societies Ordinance 1967 or the Charitable Trust Ordinance 1994 and registered under the Societies Act 1966.
“For those without headquarters, they can submit their forms directly to Unifor,” it said.
The forms can either be downloaded from the Unifor website at http://www.jkm.sarawak.gov.my or from the headquarters of their respective houses of worship as well as from the resident and district offices statewide.
The management of the houses of worship are also required to adapt the general guidelines of the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to suit their respective needs.
Among the guidelines issued comprised rules on compliance and strict control on the number of devotees at any one worship service according to the size of the respective houses of worship, with no more than 100 people after taking into account the minimum of one-metre social distancing.
“Devotees with symptoms of fever, cough and breathing difficulties, as well as children below 12 years old are not allowed to attend any services in the houses of worship,” said Unifor.
It also advised those with chronic illnesses (especially senior citizens) to take precautionary measures if they want to attend the services.
Other guidelines which must be adhered to include disinfection process before and after worship services, taking of body temperature, use of face masks, social distancing, hand sanitising, scanning of QR code through the use of the MySejahtera or CovidTrace applications or by filling up an attendance book.
