Phase two of MCO ends today, phase three begins tomorrow

The purpose of the MCO remains the same, which is to break the chain of COVID-19 infections in the country.

Announcing the extension of the MCO into phase three last Friday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin urged the people to work together to fight the spread of COVID-19 as the pandemic has not yet ended.

The Prime Minister said if the people were successful in this effort, by the grace of Allah, the disease can be controlled.

Meanwhile, several selected economic sectors will be re-opened in stages, with guidelines set on health care and tight movement control.

According to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), it would take about five days to process applications from companies to operate during the MCO, and if successful, approval letters will be issued by the COVID-19 Intelligent Management System (CIMS) 2.0 through the website https://application.miti.gov.my

Although the MCO has been enforced for almost a month now since it was introduced on March 18, with the rate of public compliance at 97 per cent, every day there are still people being detained and issued compounds for non-compliance.

Each day, at his daily press conference on the MCO, Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob announces the number of people hauled up for violating the order, while the Royal Malaysia Police and the Malaysian Armed Forces continue to hold roadblocks and inspect vehicles.

According to media reports yesterday, 1,471 individuals have been detained, with 949 issued compounds, 503 remanded and 19 on police bail, while 51 have been charged in court.

So far, the COVID-19 situation in Malaysia is showing encouraging developments with 168 fully-recovered patients who have been allowed to be discharged from the ward yesterday, exceeding the number of new positive cases.

The number of fully-recovered patients discharged from the wards is now 2,276 or 47.23 per cent of the total number of cases.