RMCO Guidelines for Wedding & Social Events
Original – 24 June 2020
Updated – 10 July 2020
As the Covid-19 situation improves, the government has decided to relaxed the rules on holding events.
NO MORE Maximum Number of 250 Guests
Yes. There isn’t a maximum on the number of guests allowed at events anymore. You can now have more than 250 guests.
But wait. There’s a condition. Distancing rules still applies. You must still apply the physical distance of 1 metre from each other. So if you want to organize an event for 500 people, you would need a place that ordinarily takes 1,000 people.
Events That Are Allowed
Events that are allowed to be held are weddings, engagement ceremonies, aqiqah, doa selamat, tahlil, wedding anniversaries, birthday parties, school reunions and other social events. (It really should be called physical distancing, because you are after all gathering together in a social setting, so you are not social distancing anymore. Just saying)
What About Birthday Parties
Other than weddings, the government also mentioned that the following events are allowed.
Engagement Ceremonies
Aqiqah
Doa Selamat
Tahlil
Wedding Anniversaries (so you have no excuse now about not doing your wedding anniversary)
Birthday Parties
Reunions (like school reunions)
Number of Hours Allowed
Social events are allowed to take place over 3 hours to 5 hours. So don’t exceed those hours, so that you don’t run foul of the law.
Size Does Matter
You can organise a wedding with up to even a 1,000 pax, but remember it’s still subject to social distancing measures. Each person should still maintain a distance of 1 metre all around from one another. Each person would then occupy a 1 square metre space.
Let us do the math for you. If the area of the space is 200 square metres, then you are allowed to have a maximum of 200 people in it. That’s 200 square metres divided by the 1 square metre space everyone is supposed to occupy. If there’s a stage in front, it reduces the space further.
If you want that in feet measurement, then 1 square metre is the approximate equivalent of 10 square feet. So if you want to host 1,000 people, you need a space that’s at the very least 10,000 square feet (not inclusive of the stage).
You should also take into account that people are of different sizes, so some extra area should be set aside. So to be safe, add another 25%. So that 10,000 square feet (or 1,000 square metres) would need to be 12,500 square feet or 1,250 square metres.
Red Zones
No, you can’t hold any social events within Red Zones or zones that are within EMCO.
Patient Under Investigation / Person Under Surveillance
People who are classified as Patient Under Investigation / Person Under Surveillance by the Ministry of Health are not allowed to attend events. Quite obvious, but just in case anyone did not get the memo, the government is stating it very clearly.
Contact Tracing & Social Distancing SOP
All participants have to be registered through the MySejahtera app.
* for those without a smartphone, they are to be registered manually
Hand sanitisers must be provided for users to disinfect their hands.
Everyone is required to wear face masks.
There should be controlled entry and exit to the event venue.
And anyone who registers a temperature higher than 37.5 degrees Celsius will not be allowed to participate. Please stay home if you are running a fever.
Can Have Buffet Or Not?
Yes, food and drinks are allowed to be served. While the earlier guidelines (17 June 2020) stated that no buffet was allowed, the government has decided to relax that earlier suggestion.
You may have a buffet line provided food handlers from the caterer are serving the food. Guests are not allowed to serve themselves. Guests are advised to maintain a distance of 1 metre from one another when collecting the food.
The government still recommends AGAINST buffet lines for events.
Press Conference Video
Click here to watch the press conference video. You can start watching from 19:00 to listen to what the minister of defence states about social events exceeding 250 pax.
