Great Cae-SARS ghost! The empty malls of Miri

By Rosli Abidin Yahya Returning shoppers from the neighbouring oil-town of Miri expressed their shock to find it being reduced to a veritable ghost town deprived of foreign visitors including shoppers from Brunei Darussalam. The local population's favourite town, dubbed as a shopping and entertainment paradise, is being given the miss for the time being as Bruneians stay home as a result of the global outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), atypical pneumonia epidemic.

The couple, both of them entrepreneurs, said they went to Miri in their urgency to find products not available here but were shocked to find the town's major shopping complexes empty.

These eyewitness accounts support the claim that the Sarawakian town definitely needs the purchasing power of foreigners mainly Bruneians to support its economy.

Their claims also supported the official statistic where only 79 people left Brunei Darussalam for neighbouring countries in April compared to 1,162 in January.

The authorities here also advised the local population to exercise responsibility and not to go to neighbouring towns including Miri unless in real urgency in its zest to contain the SARS virus from being spread here.

Returning locals also witnessed a few cases of people from the neighbouring towns being subjected to quarantine after their arrival here from various entry points when they were found to have extremely high temperature.

However, there were later released after more tests were carried out as well as being subjected to quarantine for stipulated time.

Students who would be having their second term holidays in the middle of next month have also been advised not to go to SARS hotspot countries.

If such travel cannot be avoided, students returning from a SARS-infected country will need to undergo quarantine for a period of 10 days before being allowed to return to classes.

Furthermore, the students also need a medical certificate for clearance before they are allowed back to school.

Meanwhile some foreign workers from affected countries were said to have shelved their holiday plans for the time being.

However, Filipinos must really be glad now as the World Health Organisation (WHO) last Wednesday removed the Philippines from a list of countries with recent local transmissions of SARS.

The WHO said that 20 days - twice the maximum incubation period - have passed since the last locally transmitted cases of SARS were isolated on April 30 and the world body "can safely conclude that local transmission has been interrupted.''

The Philippines has reported 12 SARS cases, including two deaths. All but four were traced back to a Filipina nurse who contracted the virus in Toronto and infected her father upon returning home.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin