Conditional MCO for Klang, three more Sabah districts from Friday

UPDATED 10.35PM | Updated case tallies and added more details regarding Covid-19 red zones.

COVID-19 | Stay-at-home orders have been extended to four more districts - Klang in Selangor and Sandakan, Papar and Tuaran in Sabah - to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Beginning this Friday (Oct 9), only essential services and International Trade and Industry Ministry-approved manufacturers will be allowed to operate in these four districts.

However, the SOPs for the conditional MCO on Klang are yet to be finalised as the state-level National Security Council will only meet on this tomorrow morning, Selangor Menteri Besar Amiruddin Shaari said.

The restrictions will also follow the Health Department borders, which thus far is not publicly available.

Therefore, the conditional MCO on the Klang district may include parts of the Shah Alam and Setia Alam townships.

Further details will be announced later, said Amiruddin who will chair the meeting tomorrow.

Travel in and out of these areas will be restricted.

Dawn-to-dusk (6am to 6pm) operating hours will apply to eateries, pharmacies and convenience stores, while taxi and e-hailing services and petrol stations can only operate until 8pm.

All pasar harian will be allowed to operate from 6am to 2pm while all other types of markets including tamu and pasar malam will be temporarily banned.

Those wishing to work or travel must obtain permission from the police beforehand. Travel is only allowed for emergencies and official duties.

This order, referred to officially as a conditional movement control order (MCO), has no set expiry date.

The restrictions under the conditional MCO are:

- Not more than two persons in a vehicle.

- Closure of businesses providing non-essential services.

- Eateries and convenience stores will be closed after 6pm.

- No inter-city bus services.

- No travelling to work, unless in essential services. Police permission is required.

- Closure of mosques, surau, places of worship, higher education institutions, training centres, schools, kindergartens, nurseries, tahfiz centres and childcare centres.

- Ban on all sports, recreation, social and cultural activities.

Its imposition was decided by the National Security Council this morning and announced by Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Ismail Sabri Yaakob at 4pm this afternoon.

---

Read more: Schools in 4 districts to be closed a day ahead of conditional MCO

---

According to a tally by the Health Ministry, there are 118 active cases in Sandakan, 68 active cases in Papar, 64 active cases in Tuaran, and 56 active cases in Klang as of noon today.

Districts with more than 40 active cases are classified as "red zones".

However, the tally does not include imported, interstate, or interdistrict cases.

If such cases are included, Petaling and Hulu Langat districts in Selangor and Kota Setar in Kedah also have more that 40 active cases but are not currently under conditional MCO.

According to the respective state health offices, there are 79 active cases in Klang, 63 active cases in Petaling, 44 active cases in Hulu Langat, and 1,200 active cases in Kota Setar if imported, insterstate, and interdistrict cases are included.

Most of the Kota Setar cases are attributed to the Tembok cluster that has 1,186 cases so far.

The Health Ministry had said the cluster involved a prison population and is isolated from the community-at-large since the Alor Setar Prison is under an enhanced MCO.

Meanwhile, Ismail also announced that the police will henceforth issue summonses for MCO violations on the spot as opposed to taking the offenders back to a police station as previously done.

---

Keep up with the latest information on the outbreak in the country with Malaysiakini's free Covid-19 tracker.

Malaysiakini is providing free access to the most important updates on the coronavirus pandemic. You can find them here.

Help keep independent media alive - subscribe to Malaysiakini.