KUALA LUMPUR JAN.31: The Movement Control Order (MCO) has been imposed in the districts of Song and Kapit in Kapit Division, Sarawak effective 2nd until 15th February 2021 due to the surge in new COVID-19 cases.
Senior and Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said, the Song District that was in a green zone before had recorded 93 COVID-19 cases while Kapit District with no infection before had 13 positive cases.
Ismail said, the two districts not only had a surge in COVID-19 cases but the infection rate was also high within 14 days.
“With the advice and the risk analysis carried out by the Ministry of Health (MOH), the government had agreed to impose MCO in these two districts until 15th February with the same standard operating procedures (SOP) as announced earlier,” Ismail said in a statement here today.
Among the SOPs of the MCO include – the people in the MCO areas are not allowed to go out except two people from the same house to get the necessaries; only three persons including the patient are allowed to get health care or medication; the movements of the people in and out from the MCO areas are permitted only on emergency cases like death with prior permission from the Royal Police Malaysia (RPM); restaurants, food shops/stalls and grocery shops are permitted to operate from 6.00am until 8.00pm; the sales of food is only permitted via packed food, drive through or home delivery from 6.00am until 8.00pm.
On another development, Ismail said, the government had decided to impose Enhanced MCO (EMCO) in Simpang Renggam Prison and the staff quarters in Kluang, Johor effective 1st until 14th February 2021due to the sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in these two places.
The Senior Minister added, from 29th January 2021 MOH had implemented198 screening tests and out of which 108 had been detected with positive COVID-19 cases involving 100 detainees, six staffs and two close contacts.
“The imposition of EMCO in these places is to enable MOH to carry out the targeted screening tests on all the detainees, staffs and close contacts involved and to ensure that there is no transmission of corona virus in the community,” Ismail reiterated.
Ismail added, the SOP of the EMCO is similar from what had been announced before and this includes movement in and out of the areas and visits from the family members are not allowed.
Regarding the compulsory screen tests on foreign workers, Ismail said, the Ministry of Human Resources had informed that yesterday 8,028 had been screened tested and out of which 47 were detected with positive COVID-19.
“From 1st December 2020, 259,129 foreign workers had been screen tested for COVID-19 involving 10,741 employers.
From the total, 4,782 individuals had been detected positive while 254,347 negative.
“Up to date 800 clinics had been involved in the screening programmes.
This is in line with the government’s directive to carry out compulsory screen tests on all foreign workers with the costs borne by the employers in six states namely Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Pulau Pinang, Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and Labuan.
On the SOP non-compliance, Ismail said, 578 individuals had been detained and out of which 525 had been compounded while 53 were remanded.
Amongst the offences recorded were not adhering to physical distancing (108), inter -state/district travel without permission (90), not wearing face masks (78), activities in the entertainment centres (68), failing to provide equipments to record particulars of customers (56), premises operating over the time limit/without permission (51) and others (127). –Malaysia World News
