Ismail Sabri: 752 held for violating Covid-19 SOP

PUTRAJAYA: The police have arrested 752 individuals for various violations of the Covid-19 standard operating procedure, including 277 people for not putting on face masks while in crowded public places.

Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said on Wednesday (Jan 20) that 718 of those arrested were slapped with compounds, while the remaining 34 were remanded.

Aside from not wearing masks, other offences include interstate and inter-district travel without permission from the authorities (73), not practising social distancing (128), failure of premises to record customers’ details (137) and operating beyond permitted hours (39).

On Ops Benteng, Ismail Sabri said 57 illegal immigrants were arrested during operations nationwide on Tuesday (Jan 19).

“On the compulsory screening for foreign workers in six states, the National Security Council special meeting was informed that as of Tuesday, 178,370 foreign workers had been screened for Covid-19. From the figure, 3,520 tested positive, ” he said on Wednesday (Jan 20).

Ismail Sabri also reported that 558 individuals had returned to Malaysia on Tuesday and of the number, 517 were quarantined at government-designated stations.

Since April 24 last year, a total of 107,567 individuals who returned to the country were sent to various facilities to observe a mandatory quarantine period.

He added that the authorities had carried out 101 sanitisation exercises on Tuesday, covering 44 red zones, four orange zones, 12 yellow zones and two green zones nationwide.

The senior minister said that checks by the Construction Industry Development Board enforcement officers on 37 construction sites found that three sites did not comply with SOP.