PUTRAJAYA, April 23 — Public markets have been allowed to operate an additional two hours, from 6 am to 2 pm, during Ramadan throughout the movement control order (MCO) period, compared to 6 am to noon before this.
Senior Minister (security cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said besides this, the government has also decided to allow public transport services to operate an hour earlier, from 4 pm to 10 pm, compared to 5 pm to 10 pm prior to this.
He said the leeway in operating hours is to assist Muslims’ iftar (break of fast) preparations throughout Ramadan.
“Throughout Ramadan, the SOP (standard operation procedure) for the MCO announced for all three phases still applies,” he said in the daily media conference on the MCO here today.
Muslims are expected to start observing the fasting month tomorrow (Friday).
Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri said since yesterday, the police and the Malaysian Armed Forces had mounted 835 roadblocks nationwide and inspected a total of 581,942 vehicles.
“A total of 41,184 surprise checks were done on 6,658 premises, while 763 individuals were detained by the police for MCO violations yesterday, of which 648 of them were remanded and 115 released on police bail,” he said.
“A total of 860 individuals were also charged in court yesterday, and up to yesterday, a total of 18,498 individuals have been detained for disobeying the MCO,” he said.
He said 253 sanitisation operations, covering 79 zones in 13 states, including 39 in Johor and 26 in Perak were carried out yesterday. They include disinfection works on 181 government-owned buildings, 158 public spaces, 103 business centres and 16 supermarkets.
“In total, 2,423 government buildings, 1,498 public spaces, 1,590 business centres, 248 supermarkets and 1,205 housing areas, including People’s Housing Projects, have been sanitised,” he said.
Ismail Sabri said 201 quarantine centres nationwide are operating as of today, compared to 196 the day before, in which a total of 15,880 individuals are placed there.
”Yesterday, 535 Malaysians returned home from abroad and have been quarantined.
He said 16,416 Malaysians who returned home have undergone mandatory quarantine since April 3, while 4,908 individuals who have completed their quarantine process have been allowed to return home since April 17.
— Bernama
