KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians are still taking the enforced Movement Control Order (MCO) lightly as the number of people arrested and vehicles inspected nationwide have doubled.
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob revealed that the figures of those arrested yesterday rose to 649 from 320 on Friday.
A total of 73 people out of the 649 were charged in court and pleaded guilty to the offences.
He said the 997 roadblocks that were mounted to monitor the MCO yesterday saw 310,000 vehicles checked compared to 200,000 the day before.
“This means there are still a lot of cars on the road and even when strict action will be taken, a lot people still defy the MCO. “The police have been given permission to take stricter action.
“Maybe what we can do immediately is to issue them compounds, besides hauling them to court.
“Maybe tomorrow we will announce the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the second phase of the MCO,” Ismail told a press conference today.
Some reasons given for leaving their homes were to buy food, but the police had every reason to be suspicious after seeing the same people being stopped at the roadblock as many as four times a day, said Ismail.
“Their reasons for going out were to buy food, but it came up to four times (a day) to the point that even the policeman recognised the (individual).
“They come out in the morning, at noon, afternoon and night. Police grew suspicious and they know they are not genuine when they say they want to buy food but they simply want to go out,” said Ismail.
He said there were people who still went in groups as well as those who gathered at coffee shops and would ignore the order by the police to disperse.
He said there were also cases of those who rammed into roadblocks.
“I do not want to go into details, but there are some of these groups out there and they are quite stubborn,” he said.
He said over 3,000 non-essential premises were checked and some were ordered to shut down by the police.
Meanwhile, Malaysians are still barred from leaving the country amid the Covid-19 pandemic, said Ismail.
He said this when asked on the status of some 8,000 civil servants who had been given permission to fly overseas before the MCO came to effect.
“The travel ban stays. No Malaysian can leave the country for the time being. And those who had left before the MCO took effect and had returned from overseas, they are subject to health screenings at the airport and would be quarantined if they are suspected to be positive of the virus.
“The same goes to our people who were stranded overseas and brought home. That is the Standard Operating Procedure if they are suspected and show symptoms such as cough and high body temperature. They will be quarantined for swab tests,” said Ismail.
He also dismissed a report by a daily which said some areas would be put on a total lockdown.
He said he had never given any statement to any other media outlets, specifically The Edge Markets on the matter.
“The report was written in a way that the statement came from me, but I did not give any to them. So the report by them is totally untrue.”