KUALA LUMPUR: The movement control order (MCO) slated to end Jan 26 has been extended for Penang, Selangor, Melaka, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Labuan, Johor, Sabah and Kelantan due to a spike in Covid-19 cases over the last two weeks.
The extension is until Feb 4, streamlined with the enforcement of the MCO in Kedah, Perak, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Terengganu and Perlis.
This means the entire country will be under the MCO, except Sarawak until Feb 4.
Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the decision was made upon advice and risk assessment by the Health Ministry.
"Now we have streamlined the dates to run together with the other states we announced last week.
"The end date will be the same," he said in a press conference today.
Amongst the reason for the extension of the MCO was that some of the states recorded a high number of cases over the past 14 days, from Jan 7 to Jan 20.
Ismail Sabri said Penang recorded 2,310 Covid-19 cases during that period, Kuala Lumpur (4,413), Putrajaya (294), Kelantan (1,208), Johor (5,665) and Sabah (6,027).
"The Health Ministry confirmed a high number of cases related to local transmissions with a daily average of over 1,000 over the past 14 days," he said.
He also said that a majority of the districts in these states were now categorised as Red Zones with cases showing a spike during the same period.
New clusters also emerged in these states, he said.