by NUR HAZIQAH A MALEK / Pic by RAZAK GHAZALI

THE Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) will be enforced at the Muar Rehabilitation Centre (PPA) from today until Jan 6 next year, due to the high infectivity rate.

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the Ministry of Health (MoH) has conducted 726 screening tests at the PPA, where 20 positive cases have been detected among detainees.

“Based on the risk assessment, MoH found that the rate of infection is high. On the advice of the MoH, the special session today agreed on the implementation of the EMCO at the PPA from Dec 24 to Jan 6, 2021,” he said in a statement yesterday.

The implementation of the EMCO is to facilitate a thorough screening of all positive close contact cases among 773 detainees and 127 staff.

“The EMCO standard operating procedures (SOPs) at the centre is the same as previously announced, which means no movement of entry and exit and family visits are not allowed,” he added.

Meanwhile, the EMCO implemented on Sierra East Condominium, Penang, will end on Dec 31.

Up to 230 individuals were detained on Tuesday for flouting the SOPs under the Recovery MCO.

He said the offences committed by the individuals were failure to record customer details (76).

“There were also activities at entertainment centres (71), refusal to wear face masks (41), failure to comply with physical distancing (37) and others,” he said in a statement yesterday.

On Tuesday, the operational task-force has also performed 48,507 inspections on supermarkets (3,603), restaurants (4,806), hawkers (1,605), factories (1,143), banks (3,341) and government offices (542).

Similarly, land transportation terminals (962), water terminals (249) and air terminals (112) have been monitored.

Meanwhile, Ops Benteng has detained 33 foreigners and confiscated five vehicles while having mounted 111 roadblocks in total.

The public sanitation operations performed 29 operations yesterday in nine red zones, four orange zones, six yellow zones, and two green zones across nine states.

The mandatory post-travel quarantine has 7,574 individuals undergoing isolation, whereas 535 have been sent to the hospital, and 82,427 allowed to return home.

On Tuesday, enforcement agents and officers from the Construction Industry Development Board performed inspections on 24 construction sites nationwide, with all of them complying with the SOPs.

Separately, Malaysia recorded 1,348 new Covid-19 cases as at noon yesterday.

There were 16 import cases and Selangor continues to record the highest number of cases with 535, followed by Kuala Lumpur (KL) (226) and Sabah (189), while 193 new cases were reported from clusters related to prisons, jails and immigration depots.

Out of the currently active 18,279 cases, 102 of them are undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit and 44 require ventilator aid, while five more cases were added to the death tally from the virus.

The number of recoveries stood at 710, adding to the total of 80,014 recovered patients.

Meanwhile five new clusters have been identified, namely the Tapak Bina Jalan Panah cluster in Lembah Pantai, KL (21 cases); Wang Tower cluster across KL, Selangor and Pahang; Saga Tengah cluster in Sabah (16); Kolam Air cluster, Kedah (14) and Hala Mutiara cluster, Perak (7).

Three clusters ended yesterday, namely the Kiambang cluster, Padang cluster and Liawan cluster.