By Ida Nadirah Ibrahim
SHAH ALAM, Aug 22 — The Selangor State Legislative Assembly will be held under stringent standard operating procedures (SOPs) and can only be attended by those who have received two doses of their Covid-19 vaccines, says Ng Suee Lim.
The Selangor State Assembly Speaker said the rule applies to all, including the Selangor Menteri Besar, state executive councillors, state assemblymen, members of the press, and heads of relevant departments and agencies.
During the Media Selangor’s Bual Bicara talk show on the preparations of the state assembly sitting broadcast on Friday night, Ng said those who have only been administered the first dose will be barred from the meet.
“This is the strict rule that we have in place… we have had a series of meetings with the Selangor State Health Department (JKNS) and the National Security Council (NSC) as well as the relevant agencies involved to prepare for the upcoming sitting.
“Based on the advice from the JKNS, we have reviewed and set stringent SOPs for the meet, from the opening ceremony on August 23 until the session ends on September 6,” he said.
Ng said the state assembly sitting would also limit the number of attendees to avoid overcrowdedness and ensure adherence to social distancing.
He said a screening operation was held on Friday for attendees of the meet, including those indirectly involved, using the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test, and results will be out within 48 hours.
“We hope that everything will run smoothly and that everyone would be able to attend the opening ceremony (tomorrow).
“At the same time, we will also provide the attendees with a set of five saliva-based Covid-19 self-test kits for self-screening purposes at home, and they can get the results within 15 minutes.
“This is to ensure that what happened in Parliament does not happen during the state assembly,” said Ng.
On July 29, the Parliament session was postponed until the evening after two new Covid-19 cases were discovered on Parliament grounds. Everyone in Parliament, including MPs, parliamentary staff and media practitioners, had to be tested for Covid-19 at the time.
Tomorrow’s opening ceremony of the First Meeting of the Fourth Session of the 14th Selangor State Legislative Assembly will be held briefly and in strict compliance with the SOPs.
The Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah Alhaj, had consented to grace the opening ceremony. His Royal Highness would be accompanied by the Raja Muda of Selangor Tengku Amir Shah.
