Ban on interstate travel stays until March 18, inter district allowed except in Sabah - Ismail Sabri

KUALA LUMPUR:

The prohibition on crossing state nationwide at the moment will remained while travel across district is allowed except Sabah effective from March 5 to 18.

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said inter district ban in Sabah would be maintained for two weeks based on the request of the state government.

"We understand Sabah is very big, one district in the state is larger than most states in the Peninsula. As such the Sabah government asked the matter (cross district) to be postponed in the state,” he told a media conference on the development of Movement Control Order (MCO) here today.

Apart from that, Ismail Sabri said the status of Movement Control Order (MCO) in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang would be replaced with Conditional Movement Control Order from March 5 to 18.

He said the status of CMCO in Kedah, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Sarawak and Perak would remain while the status of CMCO in Melaka, Pahang, Terengganu, Putrajaya, Labuan would be changed to Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO).

"The order will be effective from March 5 to 18 except in Sarawak where the RMCO implementation will start from March 2 to March 15. Perlis will remained under RMCO,” he said.

Ismail Sabri said EMCO in the flat and housing areas of Town Villa in Sibu Jaya, Sibu, Sarawak will be lifted according to schedule on Thursday except in blocks C, H, J, K, L, N and R which has been extended to March 11.

He said a risk assessment by the Ministry of Health (MOH) found the positive cases in Town Villa housing area and some blocks of flats have shown a decline in cases.

“To date, MOH has conducted screenings on 6,818 residents and from the total 277 were found positive in two localities,” he said.

Meanwhile, 400 individuals were detained yesterday for violating the standard operating procedure (SOP) with 352 compounds issued while 48 people were remanded for various offences including not providing facilities to record customer details.

On Op Benteng, Ismail Sabri said eight illegal immigrants were apprehended while five vehicles were confiscated and 74 boats were detected in the waters of the country yesterday.

As at Feb 28, 12,121 foreigners and 922 skippers have been arrested, he said.

On further details of interstate movements between Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, he said crossing between Selangor and Kuala Lumpur is allowed.

“However, movement from Selangor or Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya is still not allowed as Putrajaya is under RMCO. It is to protect Putrajaya from the spread of COVID-19.

“As such, movements from Kuala Lumpur or Selangor to Putrajaya will still need police permit except for those who working and those with letters from their employers,” he said.

Before this, during CMCO 1.0, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya were considered one zone and interstate travel among the states were allowed.

-- BERNAMA