KUCHING: The Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) under the Chief Minister’s Department has decided to increase the maximum number of participants allowed at religious ceremonies to 250 at any one time.

This is in line with the decision made the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to allow ceremonies organised by both the government and the private sector to see a maximum number of participants to 250 people, with the condition of practising social distancing of at least one metre, Unifor said in a statement today.

Earlier, Unifor had set guidelines of allowing a maximum of 100 participants attending religious ceremonies at any one time.

This was prescribed under Article 3.1 in the earlier Guidelines for the Opening of Places of Worship.

However, all places of worship intending to reopen from June 20 are advised to do so according to their capacity and level of readiness to ensure full compliance of the latest guidelines and the existing standard operating procedures (SOP).

Unifor asserted that the announcement of the reopening of all the places of worship was subject to the places of worship gazetted under the Missionary Societies Ordinance 1937 (Sarawak Cap.106) or under the Non-Islamic Charities Trust Board under the Charitable Trust Ordinance 1994 and registered with the Registrar of Societies (RoS) under the Societies Act 1966 (Act 335).

Notices of reopening are to be submitted through the headquarters of various places of worship to Unifor using Form PP.01/2020 while those that do not have headquarters can submit their forms to Unifor.

The form is available on Unifor’s website.

It is also obtainable at the headquarters of various places of worship as well as the Resident and District Offices.

For further inquiries, contact or email Unifor Policy and Public Relations Division officer Simon Engka Crown at 082-550610 ext 126/014-5750990 or simone@sarawak.gov.my, and Ambrose Linang Sidu (028-550610 ext 127/019-8780787 or ambrosels@sarawak/gov.my).