Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Ismail Sabri Yaakob today assured that there will not be a national lockdown despite the number of Covid-19 cases hitting a record-high yesterday since the start of the pandemic in the country.
He said this was because when the 287 new cases yesterday were scrutinised, many were confined within prisons while community transmission was limited.
"Will the movement control order (MCO) be reimplemented across Malaysia? I know many people want to know because there was a special meeting by the National Security Council (NSC) today.
"People asked if there will be an MCO. The answer is no," he told a press conference in Putrajaya which was aired live on TV and social media.
Ismail held the press conference after attending a special NSC meeting chaired by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin this morning.
The defence minister said the details of the statistics showed that the people do not need to panic but he also cautioned the public not to let their guard down.
"The cases are increasing but when we analysed the numbers, I hope people don't panic too much. I know people may scold me for saying 'don't panic'.
"But in Kedah for example, there were 129 cases yesterday. Looking at the details, 128 of the cases were in a prison which is the Tembok cluster. Only one was from outside," he added.
In Sabah, he said of 113 new cases, 35 were within a prison under the Benteng Lahad Datu cluster.
Ismail acknowledged while the transmission in Sabah was high, those cases were within areas that have already been partially locked down under an administrative enforcement targeted enhanced MCO.
He added that while Selangor had more than 30 cases, the other states were only seeing between one and three cases.
Ismail, who is in charge of enforcing the MCO, said even if the MCO had to be enforced, it will be targeted.
He stressed that for now, there won't be a lockdown of an entire state.
"For example, if there are many cases in Shah Alam, we won't lock down the whole state. Perhaps we will lock down a flat or one or two villages," he said.
Yesterday, Malaysia recorded 287 new cases, the highest daily increase since the start of the pandemic.
Malaysia went into a national lockdown on March 18 after a religious gathering caused a spike in Covid-19 cases.
The lockdown was eased in phases beginning May 13.
However, a new wave of cases has hit the country. The latest wave can be traced to undocumented migrants in detention who infected guards. The virus later got out into the community.
This coincided with the Sabah election where top political leaders and campaigners from across the country were deployed to the state for campaigning.
However, when the election concluded on Sept 26, many of them brought the virus with them to their home states.
The Health Ministry is now requiring all arrivals from Sabah to undergo a swab test. - Mkini
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