Sabah must adopt SOP issued by NSC - Ismail Sabri

 

The Sabah government must abide by and adopt the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the National Security Council (NSC) just like other states, said Senior Minister (Security) Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He said the NSC decided that there must be only one SOP to be used nationwide.

“We used to have a special dispensation where they (state governments) are allowed to tighten the SOP but the state governments cannot relax the SOP that is in force.

“For example, eateries are allowed to operate from 6am to 10pm. If the state governments want to limit the operating hours from 6am to 8pm we will permit it. But if they want to let the eateries operate until midnight, then they can’t.

“As such, I have informed the Sabah government representative at yesterday’s special meeting of the NSC that the SOP in Sabah must be the same as in every other state,” he said.

He was speaking to reporters during a "get together" with medical officers and contract trainee healthcare workers at the Tuanku Mizan Armed Forces Hospital in Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur, today.

Previously, Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor reportedly said the state would allow dining-in at eateries from today, in contrast to the SOP issued by the NSC.

Meanwhile, Ismail said the NSC is looking into applications made by states with low numbers of Covid-19 cases to relax their SOPs. He said a decision will be made in the near future.

He said the flexibility to allow different SOPs was previously given to states with low Covid-19 numbers but that caused confusion among the public.

He said the government used to implement conditional MCO, enhanced MCO, and recovery MCOs but the public complained they were confused as one state would have different SOPs from another.

“We then proposed the national-level threshold value, but some feel it’s not fair to states like Perlis, which, although it records just one-digit cases daily, cannot transition from Phase One (of the Movement Control under the National Recovery Plan) because it has to follow the national-level threshold value.

“So, yesterday we discussed further the threshold value. God willing, we will provide further details and when the time comes, we will announce. Maybe states will use the number of cases per 100,000 population so that it will be fairer to all,” he said.

- Bernama