EMCO in two localities in Melaka, Sabah from May 16

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob the decision was made following a risk assessment with various agencies in the MCO Technical Committee.

He said the EMCO at Kampung Lubok Redan was to facilitate the Health Ministry (MOH) to conduct targeted screening on all individuals involved and prevent the spread of COVID-19 to the outside community.

"To date, the MOH confirms there has been a surge in the number of cases in the period of two weeks when 56 positive cases were recorded in this locality (Kampung Lubok Redan)," he said in a statement on the MCO and Conditional MCO today.

On Lorong 2 Kampung Kongsi 8, he said the MOH reported 15 positive cases out of 56 individuals screened at the locality so far with a positivity rate of 26.79 per cent.

According to Ismail Sabri, the enforcement of the EMCO at the locality was to ease the MOH to conduct an active case detection exercise so that positive cases could be isolated immediately, as well as to prevent the spread of the coronavirus to other community.

Meanwhile, he said the EMCO at Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Madai, Kunak, Sabah would be extended until May 28 as COVID-19 was still spreading among residents and 51 remaining screening test samples were awaiting results.

"Thus far, the MOH has conducted 895 screening tests, of which 42 COVID-19 cases have been recorded," he said.

Besides that, he said the government also agreed to lift the EMCO at Kampung Bergosong, Tawau, Sabah tomorrow as scheduled.

On the standard operating procedure (SOP) compliance, Ismail Sabri said a total of 292 individuals were nabbed for breaching the SOP yesterday, with 278 compounded with 14 others remanded.

At the same time, he said seven illegal immigrants were arrested in Ops Benteng, while 481 roadblocks were mounted throughout the country.