KUALA LUMPUR: The Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) in Kampung Sinsingon and Kampung Lotong, Sabah, which was scheduled to end tomorrow, has been extended for two more weeks until March 26 as there are still new COVID-19 cases among the residents.

Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the decision was made after the risk evaluation carried out by various agencies in the MCO technical committee.

“The Ministry of Health (MOH) has carried out 674 screenings and 81 positive cases were recorded. The MOH also confirmed that 322 samples are still awaiting results and there are still positive cases reported,” he said in a statement today.

In Sarawak, Ismail Sabri said the government agreed to lift the EMCO in Penempatan Sentosa Timur Phase 2, Sibu as scheduled tomorrow as there has been a drop in the number of cases, the clusters in the locality is under control and all close contacts have been isolated.

So far, he said the MOH had carried out 1,311 screenings at the locality and 13 positive cases were reported.

On the overall development nationwide, he said a total of 70,009 inspections were carried out yesterday and 242 individuals were detained for flouting the standard operating procedure (SOP), with the most common offence being the failure to provide equipment for recording customers’ particulars.

Under Op Benteng, he said 26 illegal immigrants were arrested while a boat and four land vehicles were seized.

On the same day, he said, a total of 88 sanitation operations involving business premises, housing areas, public places, supermarkets and government buildings were carried out, bringing to 18,448 such operations having been conducted since March 30, 2020.

Ismail Sabri also said that 619 individuals entered the country yesterday and all have been quarantined at various quarantine stations nationwide, thus, taking the total number of people who have returned since July 24, 2020 to 141,294.

“Of this number, a total of 6,955 were quarantined, 133,329 allowed to return home while 1,010 were taken to hospital,” he said.

He also said that 4,807 foreigners were screened yesterday, with 114 of them testing positive, thus taking the cumulative number of foreign workers screened so far to 603,597 and total positive cases to 9,614.

He also assured that there was a sufficient and stable supply of food based on the monitoring carried out by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry (KPDNHEP).

-- BERNAMA