EMCO in Pulau Tioman from Tuesday - Ismail Sabri

He said that the decision was made after taking into account the risk assessment of various agencies in the Movement Control Order (MCO) Technical Committee and advice from the Ministry of Health (MOH).

“The MOH has confirmed that there has been a sharp increase in cases in this locality, with a high rate of infectivity in the community.

“Until March 14, the MOH has carried out 48 screening tests and out of that number, 16 positive cases have been recorded,” he said in a press conference regarding updates on the Movement Control Order (MCO) today.

Ismail Sabri said that the government had also decided to extend the MCO in Nabawan, Sabah, for another 14 days from March 17 to 30.

“To date, the MOH has conducted 3,079 screening tests, and out of that number, a total of 279 cases have been recorded. However, the MOH confirmed that there are still 872 screening samples remaining that have not received results,” he said.

On compliance with the MCO’s standard operating procedures (SOPs), Ismail Sabri said a total of 458 individuals were detained yesterday for violating the SOPs, with 438 of them being compounded and seven others remanded, while 13 others were released on bail.

He said entertainment centre activities recorded the highest number of offences, involving 260 individuals, followed by interstate or interdistrict travel without permission (90) and failure to provide equipment to record customers’ details (40).

On border control through ‘Ops Benteng’, Ismail Sabri said eight illegal immigrants were arrested and four land vehicles were seized.

As for the screening of foreign workers, Ismail Sabri said a total of 2,506 people had undergone screening tests and two of them tested positive for COVID-19.

Cumulatively, a total of 618,486 foreign workers underwent the COVID-19 screening test, involving 32,002 employers.