SOP compliance among reasons new cases and clusters detected

The existence of a new COVID-19 cluster is not the result of failure to comply with standard operating procedures or guidelines (SOPs) by employers.

Instead, Senior Minister (Security Cluster), Ismail Sabri Yaakob explained that it was due to employers' compliance that brought their workers for screening before being allowed to work.

“Construction sites, for example, (the emergence of a new cluster) is not because they are not complying with SOP. They are actually SOP-compliant.

"When they bring in construction workers to do screening tests before they are allowed to work ... some of them were found positive, so it doesn't happen when they work.

"So, the construction company actually complies with the SOP to screen their workers before they are allowed to work. So, there is no issue of failing to comply with the SOP," he told a daily press conference here on Monday.

Ismail, who is also the Minister of Defence, said the government would continue to focus on preventing the spread of infections in areas under the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) by conducting comprehensive screening.

In addition, he said, business premises or residential areas based on localities that registered an increase of new COVID-19 cases would be closed.

"This is exactly what we did to the mall in Cheras recently, to allow for sanitisation operation and screenings to be done.

"It is different from the old method when we closed down larger areas in case of an increase in cases or COVID-19 clusters," he said.