No police permit needed to cross district, state to send children to school - Ismail Sabri

Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said these parents should instead only show a letter issued by the school allowing them to do so, at the police roadblock.

"For example, if the students are returning to their hostel, the teachers could have issued them a letter, allowing them to cross district or state,” he said at a news conference on the Movement Control Order (MCO) developments today.

Ismail Sabri said the matter had been discussed with the PDRM top officers and had also been informed to the police contingents nationwide.

He said the government had meanwhile received an appeal from full-time buskers to allow them to perform at restaurants and food stalls as they depended on this for a living.

“After evaluating the matter, the government now allows this group to perform at restaurants and other eateries in the MCO areas but they must adhere to the standard operating procedure (SOP) set, including wearing a face mask and ensuring physical distancing while entertaining the patrons,” he added.

lsmail Sabri said the government also allowed activities such as meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) and face-to-face meetings in the MCO areas, starting this March 5, with 25 per cent of the premises’ capacity permitted or a maximum of 250 people.

He said the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry had found that last year, revenue from the MICE industry dropped to RM2.25 billion or up to 90 per cent from RM9.25 billion in 2019, besides over 5,000 workers in this industry having lost their jobs.

On the manicure and pedicure services, the senior minister said the matter had been discussed with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and it had asked to be given time to assess the risks as the services given involved touching.

"The MOH wants to look at the matter in its entirety because if we allow manicure and pedicure or facials, we also need to consider the requests to resume operations from spas and massage centres as their services also involve touching," he added.

Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri announced that the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) in Kampung Darau-Awek, Kampung Padang Baloh and Kampung Lepan Kejor, Pasir Akar in Besut, Terengganu would end on Feb 27 as scheduled after the risk assessment made found the remaining COVID-19 cases there declining.