EMCO in Kg Orang Asli Batu, Batang Padang, Perak starts tomorrow - Ismail Sabri

He said the enforcement of EMCO followed screenings on symptomatic residents and close contacts from Jan 14 to 18 which resulted in 12 positive cases and 87 close contacts being quarantined now.

“The implementation of EMCO is aimed at controlling the movements of villagers as well as to facilitate the Ministry of Health to carry out targeted COVID-19 screening at the locality involving 494 residents,” he said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, he said as at yesterday, the Human Resource Ministry announced 178,370 foreign workers had undergone COVID-19 screening involving 6,677 employers with 3,520 workers confirmed COVID-19 positive.

This followed the government’s directive that all foreign workers especially in six states namely Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Sabah and Federal Territories (Kuala Lumpur and Labuan) to take COVID-19 screening tests borne by their employers.

In other developments, Ismail Sabri said 752 individuals were arrested for defying the standard operating procedure (SOP) with 718 of them issued compounds and 34 more remanded.

The offences included not wearing face masks (277), failure to provide facility to record customer details (137), not observing physical distancing (128), illegal interstate/inter-district travel (73), premises operating beyond permitted hours (39) and others (98).

In Op Benteng, Ismail Sabri who is also Defence Minister said 57 illegal immigrants were nabbed and 10 vehicles were confiscated.

Yesterday, 558 individuals returned home via international checkpoints and from the total, 517 individuals were quarantined at 28 quarantine stations nationwide.

Meanwhile, Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) personnel inspected 37 construction sites throughout the country yesterday and found from the total, 32 sites were in operation with 29 adhering to SOP and three violating the SOP.