KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — The police have caught 178 individuals yesterday for breaching the movement control order (MCO) rules, while a total of 20 individuals who returned to Malaysia from abroad since July 24 tested positive for Covid-19 and sent to hospital for treatment, senior minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today.

Ismail Sabri noted that the police-led task force to ensure compliance with standard operating procedures during the recovery movement control order (RMCO) period had yesterday conducted 62,126 checks, with 3,277 teams comprising of 14,026 personnel mobilised.

The checks were done at 3,945 supermarkets, 5,891 restaurants, 1,521 hawker stalls, 125 factories, 3,580 banks, 694 government offices, 1,138 land transport terminals, 212 water transport terminals, 99 air transport terminals.

Out of the 178 individuals nabbed yesterday by the police, 169 were issued compounds, eight were remanded while one was released on bail, Ismail Sabri said in a statement today.

As for the government’s multi-agency efforts to control the nation’s borders from entry by undocumented migrants to prevent transborder crime and prevent the Covid-19 pandemic from spreading, Ismail Sabri said the police had carried out 65 roadblocks under this Operasi Benteng throughout the country and inspected 26,794 vehicles.

"The police succeeded in nabbing a foreigner for immigration offences,” he said.

Commenting on the mandatory quarantine in government-designated centres that was reimposed by the Malaysian government from July 24 instead of allowing overseas returnees to practice home quarantine, Ismail Sabri noted that such returnees are now placed in 31 hotels and five public training institutes in Kuala Lumpur and the nine states of Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Penang, Johor, Sarawak, Kelantan, Perak, Perlis and Kedah.

Ismail Sabri said a total of 8,011 individuals had returned to Malaysia during the July 24 to August 8 period and placed in such quarantine centres, with a total of 20 of these individuals sent to hospital for treatment as they tested positive for Covid-19.

The 8,011 individuals had returned from 30 countries, namely the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei, 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 and Australia, he said.

Ismail Sabri said the public sanitisation works supervised by the Housing and Local Government Ministry since March 30 had seen 9,545 sanitisation operations for 12,817 premises in 134 zones, with yesterday seeing a total of 15 such operations in six states (Sabah, Sarawak, Melaka, Perlis, Kedah and Negri Sembilan).

Yesterday, the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry’s enforcement officers had carried out 1,733 special inspections with 1,697 premises found to comply with SOPs, 35 premises given advice and one premise warned for non-compliance with SOP.

"During this RMCO period, the government wishes to urge operators and the public to always practise self-regulation including social distancing and personal hygiene especially in activities of buying and selling daily essentials,” Ismail Sabri said.