In his latest live broadcast to the nation, Minister of Defence Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri has announced that the federal government has already decided to tighten current standard operating procedures (SOPs) surrounding the Recovery Movement Control Order, which started on 10th June 2020 and is tentatively scheduled to end by 31st August 2020.
This comes after Malaysian Covid-19 numbers continue to rise into steady double-digits for a number of days now, with yesterday (24th July 2020) charting 21 cases. As a result, active cases in Malaysia have now soared to 161 cases; of the 21 new cases, 16 cases were from local transmissions.
“Basically, the decision was agreed upon at today’s Special Ministerial Meeting on the implementation of the MCO.” the Minister said.
The technical committee is said to be meeting tomorrow (26th July 2020) to analyse in detail the current SOPs that are mandated by the government. Following that, another meeting will be held on this coming Monday to debate on the matter.
Guidelines for the upcoming Hari Raya Aidiladha holidays will be announced by Monday as well, while SOPs concerning gatherings of groups will be looked into after a new cluster was found among crew members aboard a ship. This is in addition to discussions with Sarawak’s state government to determine the best course of action in facing the sharp increase of new cases in the state, reports Sinar Harian.
Worrying news continues to show an upward trend of locally transmitted cases in Malaysia after three new clusters were also found during yesterday’s update of Covid-19 numbers in Malaysia, as well as viral social media posts concerning Malaysians returning from abroad who were seen interacting in public spaces when they were meant to be self-isolating at home.
Most recently, a Covid-19 positive woman from Ipoh was found to have been eating in public while wearing her pink self-quarantine wristband, affecting over 100 businesses as a result.
So if you are reading this, please do your part to follow the stipulated SOPs, lest Malaysia sees another rise in Covid-19 cases.