KUALA LUMPUR: Kuala Lumpur and several districts in Johor, Perak and Terengganu have been placed under the Movement Control Order (MCO) as the country's Covid-19 numbers continue to rise.
Senior Minister (Security cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the MCO in these localities would begin on May 7 until May 20.
In Johor, the affected areas are Johor Baru, Kulai and Kota Tinggi; while in Perak, the MCO is enforced at Taiping, Larut Matang and Selama.
The MCO is in place in 14 sub-districts except Hulu Besut in Besut, Terengganu. These sub-districts include Kampung Raja, Lubuk Kawah, Pelagat, Tenang, Keluang, Bukit Kenak, Kubang Bemban, Jabi, and Kerandang.
Also under the MCO are Pengkalan Nangka, Pasir Akar, Tembila, Bukkit Puteri and Kuala Besut.
"From April 1 to April 27, the Health Ministry had detected 17 new clusters in Kuala Lumpur, with an increasing number of daily cases.
"(Johor Baru, Kulai and Kota Tinggi) are all red zones with more than 150 Covid-19 cases while their intensive care unit has exceeded 70 per cent of its capacity," he said in a statement today.
Ismail Sabri said the Health Ministry had also noted that the spike in cases in Terengganu was due to the movement of students and workers from neighbouring states, with a high infectivity rate within the community at 95 per cent.
"Apart from that, Besut had also recorded 15 clusters in the same time period, where some had even spread to other localities."
On the MCO standard operating procedures (SOP), Ismail Sabri said interstate travel was prohibited, except for emergency and work purposes.
Premises selling food such as restaurants, food trucks, hawkers and kiosks are allowed to operate from 6am to 12am for takeaway only.
Supermarkets, convenience stores, pharmacies and petrol stations can open from 6am to 10pm. Only petrol stations on highways can operate 24 hours.
Daily markets, farmers markets, public and weekend markets can operate from 6am to 2pm, while hospitals, clinics and medical labs are allowed to operate as usual.
"Ramadan bazaars in areas placed under the MCO can still operate with strict SOP. However, the decision to allow them to open or close would be made by the state government through the local authorities."
He added that the full SOP on the MCO in all these areas can be accessed at the National Security Council website, www.mkn.gov.my.