KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 — The police have arrested 538 individuals for breaching regulations enforced under the recovery movement control order (RMCO) to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said from the arrests, 531 individuals were issued with compounds while seven individuals were remanded by the police.

He said among the offences were not wearing face masks (136 cases), not complying with physical distancing (82), failing to provide equipment/recording customer details (80), entertainment centre activities (78), premises operating overtime/without permission (17) and others (145).

"Authorities will continue to enhance inspections as well take action against the owners of premises and the public who fail to comply with the SOPs,” he said in a press conference today.

Ismail Sabri also said the Ops Benteng Task Force formed to safeguard the country’s borders arrested four undocumented migrants, as well as one boat captain (tekong) during yesterday’s operation.

Meanwhile, Ismail said the government will announce the SOPs for Deepavali celebration in "one or two days”.

He said Unity Minister Datuk Seri Halimah Saddique has already presented the first draft of Deepavali SOP to the Covid-19 committee and it is currently being reviewed by the Health Ministry and the National Security Council.

"Some improvements were made by the MOH detailing the assessment of the celebration SOPs as we have areas under the RMCO, EMCO (enhanced MCO) as well as CMCO (conditional MCO).

"We will announce it in a day or two,” he said.