The number of vehicles plying on major highways in the country has increased by 100 per cent on the first day of the implementation of the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) yesterday following the lifting of interstate travel ban.

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said, for example, the number of vehicles plying on the North-South Expressway (PLUS) had increased to 2.04 million yesterday compared with 1.2 million recorded one day earlier, while the Karak Highway also recorded an increase, from 37,789 to 85,985 vehicles yesterday.

Ismail Sabri, who is also the Defence Minister, said the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) would continue to monitor traffic flows at all highways and rest and service (RR) areas to ensure that standard operating procedures (SOPs) were adhered to by all motorists returning to their hometown.

“Don’t congregate too densely at the public toilets, or in the suraus, as well as at the food stalls and I hope everyone will be complying with the SOPs,” he told a daily press conference on RMCO here today.

Ismail Sabri also reminded the people wanting to travel home to drive carefully as there was a spike in fatal accident cases following the relaxation of interstate travel during RMCO.

Asked about the need for contract workers to undergo swab tests before doing work such as home renovations, Ismail Sabri said the rules applied to foreign workers only.

However, he said, it would also depend on the host and the joint management body of the residential areas if they wished for the screening test to be conducted on local contractors and workers too in order to protect the health and safety of the local community.

On complaints pertaining to traders who failed to comply with the SOPs such as body temperature screening and recording customer attendance, Ismail Sabri said customers could report the matter to the compliance operation task force on SOPs, such as the police.

“Lodge a report against the business premises and their actions (of flouting the SOPs). If there are businesses flouting the SOPs, we can either issue a compound or bring them to court or order their businesses to shut,” he said.

-- BERNAMA