Interstate travel ban to remain

The government says it will maintain the ban on interstate travel, citing it as one of the factors in the rise in daily infections in the country.

Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the decision was made at the Covid-19 technical committee meeting today.

He said the decision would not be well received but added that it was necessary to curb the spread of infection.

“Cases have increased in other countries. India currently records over 200,000 Covid-19 positive cases daily, pushing its total cases to over 14 million. In the capital New Delhi, scores of hotels and halls have been converted to house Covid-19 patients.

“We definitely do not want such a situation in Malaysia. So once again, I would like to stress self-monitoring and SOP compliance. ‘Kita jaga kita’,” he said at a media conference.

Ismail said 38 interstate travel clusters involving 5,471 cases were recorded from Dec 20, 2020 to April 20 while seven clusters involving 423 cases were recorded this month alone.

In Kelantan, since Dec 7 last year, he said a total of 10 interstate travel clusters have been recorded, some of which are still active.

“Not only are these interstate travel clusters spreading Covid-19 to green zone areas, activities such as returning to home towns to attend social functions also increase the risk of infection to vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children,” he said.

Ismail said 140 people were given compound notices while 19 others were remanded yesterday for flouting SOPs.

He said 56 illegal immigrants were detained and 10 land vehicles seized in Op Benteng yesterday.