Interstate travel still prohibited

Genetics chief warns of more mutations but puts faith in vaccine

PETALING JAYA: The prohibition on interstate travel will remain when the movement control order (MCO) in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang is replaced with a conditional movement control order (CMCO) from March 5 to 18. However, travel across districts will be allowed, except in Sabah.

Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the inter-district travel ban in Sabah will be maintained for two weeks on the request of the state government.

“We understand Sabah is very big, one district in the state is larger than most states in the peninsula. As such, the Sabah government has asked for the matter to be postponed in the state,” he told a media conference yesterday.

The CMCO in Kedah, Kelantan, Negri Sembilan, Sarawak and Perak will remain while the CMCO in Malacca, Pahang, Terengganu, Putrajaya, Labuan will be changed to a recovery movement control order (RMCO).

“The order will be effective from March 5 to 18 except in Sarawak, where the RMCO implementation will start from March 2 to March 15. Perlis will remain under an RMCO.”

He said police would use discretion when issuing the maximum compound of RM10,000 to those who violate standard operating procedures (SOP), addin that the maximum fine is meant for repeat and serious offenders and not to victimise the public.

“(The IGP) has also stated that the RM10,000 compound will not be issued to those not wearing face masks or not practising physical distancing. The public must have confidence that police will use their discretion not to victimise the people,” he said.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers official portal announced that anyone found flouting the SOP could be compounded up to RM10,000 effective March 11.

A compound of up to RM50,000 would also be issued to companies found committing the same offences.

KUALA LUMPUR: A police operation carried out nationwide to eradicate illegal gambling during Chinese New Year last month saw a larger number of people arrested this year.

Federal police CID director Comm Datuk Huzir Mohamed said yesterday that 203 raids were carried out in the operation, codenamed “Ops Limau”.

He said the month-long operation between Feb 1 and last Sunday led to the arrests of 1,513 people and over RM1.21 million seized from gamblers. In a similar operation last year, 141 raids were conducted, with 1,000 people held and RM562,312 confiscated.

“This year, our raids increased by 43% while arrests and the seizure of cash went up by 51.3% and 116% respectively,” he said.

LONDON: The world has yet to see “the full extent of the evolution” of coronavirus as it continues to adapt to humans, the head of the United Kingdom genetic surveillance programme has said.

Professor Sharon Peacock told The Independent that the dominance of the new and emerging variants, including the U.K., South African and Brazilian versions, suggests the virus is approaching “a fitness peak”.

Across the globe, the same mutations have been cropping up independently in the spike protein of Sars-Cov-2 – a result of what is known as “convergent evolution”.

Faced with selective pressure from growing immunity levels, along with socialdistancing measures that have sought to limit its spread, the virus has acquired certain characteristics that have allowed it to continue circulating.

“Lots of mutations have just lit up almost at the same time, which is really fascinating,” said Prof Peacock, who is director of the Covid-19 Genomics U.K. consortium (CogUK). “The one in Brazil, the first dated sample was Dec 4, but I expect it probably predates that a bit.

The Brazilian variant, known as P1, has been reported in 25 countries across the world, including the U.K., where a total of six infections have been detected so far by Cog-UK.

However, officials are racing to hunt down one person whose identity and whereabouts is unknown. Public Health England believes the individual, who tested positive for P1, used a home kit but did not complete their registration form properly.

A number of other variants, including the one first identified in South Africa, have been picked up in Britain, raising questions over the country’s current border-control system, which was only implemented last month.

Despite the emergent variants, Prof Peacock insisted she remained “optimistic” about the trajectory of the pandemic given the success of the Covid-19 vaccines.

“I’m very positive about vaccination,” she said. “It might not completely eliminate reinfection, but because it reduces infection and reduces transmission, then we’re getting into a better ballpark. It’s not going to switch it (Covid-19) off, which is why we’ll never get rid of it, but I think it’s very positive.

“Is it possible that a variant could emerge which is a really tough nut to crack? It could, but we’ve got sequencing and we’ve got very good vaccine strategies. My sense is that we can keep ahead of it.

“We’ve developed all these vaccines so fast, so the idea that something would be completely untreatable and we’d have to go back to living in our bubbles won’t happen. We just have to keep our eyes on the virus.”