PUTRAJAYA, 3 May 2020:
Following announcements since yesterday by Sarawak and Kedah in deciding not to ease up on the Movement Control Order (MCO) from tomorrow, May 4, a few other states have announced similar delays.
So far, states which are delaying any MCO easing are Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Perak, Pahang, Sabah and Selangor.
The Perlis state government has agreed to accept implementation of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO). Terengganu would implement the CMCO tomorrow but would tighten it if the compliance of the standard operating procedure (SOP) is low and affects the health of the people.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar said the CMCO was the right move and coincided with the state government’s effort to stimulate the affected domestic economy.
The Perak state government prohibited patrons from dine-in at any food premises but all restaurants, kiosks, food courts, roadside hawkers, indoor food stalls, and food trucks were allowed for take-away and delivery.
In addition, state secretary Datuk Ahmad Suaidi Abdul Rahim said controlled fresh markets without premises, for example, morning markets were still not allowed to re-open.
He said the state government also prohibited recreational activities in public parks in the state during the CMCO, in addition, all state government offices would be reopened tomorrow to ensure the state administration delivery system ran smoothly and effectively.
Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Ahmad Yakob, in a statement, said the state security committee would meet on Thursday (May 7) to fine-tune the CMCO, and until then, the previous conditions imposed during the MCO, would remain applicable in the state.
The Selangor state government would implement the CMCO tomorrow with additional details – including traders and hawkers who were allowed to operate from 7am to 10pm for taking away, drive-through, and delivery services.
Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari said food vendors without premises, roadside hawkers, and food trucks would only be allowed to resume operations after May 12 to give time to the local authorities to make arrangements for social distancing and contact detections.
For the construction sectors, he said the industry was allowed to resume operations at maximum levels but were required to prepare a safety action plan to control the spread of Covid-19 which were approved by respective local councils.
’All recreational facilities and indoor sporting venues remain closed. Activities in public parks including hiking on hills throughout Selangor are prohibited,” he said in a statement.
He added local councils would issue a notice on the list of parks that were not allowed access to the public and the implementation of CMCO was applicable to the whole of Selangor with additional detailings except in Selayang Baru, which is a red zone area.
The Penang state government would implement CMCO in three phases via its Penang Gradual Recovery Strategy (PGRS), from May 4.
Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the PGRS involved Phase 1 (Preparation Phase) between May 4 to 7, Phase 2 (Familiarisation Phase) between May 8 to 12, and Phase 3 (Reopening Phase) from May 13 onwards.
He said the existing MCO would still be in place till then and only certain sectors and offices would be allowed to open including the public transportation companies.
“Those sectors which are not listed under the three phases, the enforcement and operation based on the PGRS will start this Friday (May 8),” he said in a media conference via Facebook live-stream today.
He said the operating hours for all sectors would remain the same from 8am to 8pm beginning tomorrow.
Chow said, under Phase 1, all the sectors were only allowed to do preparatory work to comply with the SOP.
He said 25 sectors, which were allowed to operate in accordance with the SOP set by the National Security Council (MKN) under Phase 2, could go full capacity beginning May 8.
Among others, they were transportation (land and air) food (only for takeaways), professional services, manufacturing, finance, gas, mining and quarrying, electrical and electronics, agriculture (padi and rice), fisheries, livestock.
The others were communication, information technology, e-commerce, environment, water supply, and Konsortium (IWK) sewerage.
“All the sectors are allowed to operate from May 13, but must strictly adhere to the SOP.”
Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today it is up to the respective state governments to decide what is best for areas within their jurisdictions.
He stressed that what is important is for the state government adhere to the SOP issued by the federal government and ensure this is in line with the state SOP – as decided in a special meeting of the National Security Council last week.
“We have agreed that states can adjust the SOP we issued with the respective states and districts. But it must be based on the SOP issued by the federal government.
“For example, food shops can open until 10pm. In small towns such as my constituency, Bera in Pahang, few people are out after 8pm, more so during Ramadan. So opening until 10pm serves no purpose.
“So it can be adapted according to the states but when we say up to 10pm, shops should not stay open until midnight. It must be within the range of the SOP we have issued.”
He also said the government will only close certain areas which experience a spike in Covid-19 cases after the CMCO is implemented starting tomorrow.
he stressed that the closure of certain areas would not be implemented nationwide except in areas with drastic increase in Covid-19 cases.
“We will identify based on locality. If there are positive cases, we will close the locality concerned, and not the whole country as other places are still green. So if one area has a spike, only the area will be closed.
“This is the plan of the government to deal with large increases in Covid-19 cases,” he told the daily MCO media conference today.
Yesterday, the nation recorded 105 new Covid-19 positive cases which was the highest daily increase in the past 16 days. The daily new cases tally rose further today to 122 cases.
– Bernama