65 nabbed for flouting RMCO rules

PETALING JAYA: A total of 65 individuals were arrested yesterday for violating the recovery movement control order (RMCO).

“Of that number, two were remanded while the remaining 63 were issued compounds,” Senior Minister (Defence) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a press statement yesterday.

The offences involved not wearing face masks (35), ignoring social distancing (seven), failing to provide equipment for contact tracing registration (four), operating without a licence (eight), failure to pay quarantine charges (one), and for entering and exiting areas under the enhanced movement control order (10).

Ismail Sabri also said 2,950 teams under the compliance task force conducted checks at 15,193 premises, including supermarkets, restaurants, hawker stalls, factories, banks, government offices and land, water and air transport terminals.

He said Ops Benteng, which involved the Armed Forces, police, Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency and the Malaysian Border Security Agency arrested a total of 32 illegal immigrants, a boat skipper, four suspected smugglers and seized eight vehicles yesterday. In addition, a boat was also confiscated.

A total of 32,963 individuals have returned to Malaysia and were placed under quarantine at 67 hotels and eight public training institutes since July 24 until yesterday.

Ismail Sabri said of the total, 71 individuals were sent to hospital for treatment and 8,240 were required to go through mandatory quarantine.

They arrived from 32 countries, including the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, Laos, Qatar, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Hong Kong, India, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, Iran, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Timor Leste, Taiwan, China, UK the Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Egypt, Spain, France, Australia, New Zealand and the US. – by Shivani Supramani

PETALING JAYA: There was another spike in Covid-19 cases in the country yesterday, with 147 new cases recorded, bringing the national tally to 10,505.

Three deaths were reported as of noon, taking the number of fatalities to 133.

Health Ministry Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of the 147 cases, 143 were through local transmissions.

“Of that number, 115 are Malaysians and 28 others are foreigners, while the remaining four are imported cases involving three Malaysians returning from India and one foreigner from Indonesia,” he said in a statement.

The majority of cases reported