Covid-19 Watch: Cops to increase SOP surveillance and enforcement following spike in cases

JOHOR BARU: Police will be increasing their standard operation procedure (SOP) surveillance and enforcement in the state following the increasing cases of Covid-19 infection in the country.

State police chief Comm Datuk Kamarul Zaman Mamat said that the monitoring was to ensure that members of the public were adhering to the SOPs under Phase 4 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) that have been issued by the National Security Council (MKN).

"We would like to remind members of the public to continue to adhere to the SOP following the increasing cases of Covid-19 in our country.

"We will be increasing the frequency of our patrol and SOP compliance operations to help curb the increase of these infections," he said in a statement here, on Saturday (Feb 5).

He added that the police would take stern action against any individual that failed to comply with the SOPs under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342).

Earlier, it was reported that the new Covid-19 cases had increased by over 1,500, with 7,234 infections reported on Friday (Feb 4).

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the cumulative number of infections in the country was now 2,895,014.

He said of the new cases, 73 were in Categories 3, 4 and 5, while the rest were Categories 1 and 2 infections.

He added that 234 were imported cases, involving 92 Malaysians and 142 foreigners.

"There are 118 patients being treated at intensive care units, with 57 requiring ventilator support.

"Twenty-one new clusters were reported, bringing the number of active clusters to 346," he said in his daily update on Friday.