KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 — The movement control order (MCO) will be implemented in Seremban and Port Dickson, Negri Sembilan for 14 days, from tomorrow until February 1, following a surge in positive Covid-19 cases in the districts, said Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He said the Ministry of Health (MOH) had reported a very high infectivity rate in Seremban, with a spike in the number of cases over the last 14 days from 777 cases to 876.

"Apart from that, seven of the nine mukim (sub-districts) in Seremban are also red zones, with 56 to 283 cases being reported in the seven sub-districts over the last 14 days,” he said in a statement today.

As for Port Dickson, the MOH confirmed that there was a surge in Covid-19 positive cases over the past 14 days, involving several clusters, with cases ranging from 35 to 167.

The implementation of the MCO, he said, was to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the community and to control movement in the two districts.

Meanwhile, Ismail Sabri also announced the end of the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) for Kampung Timbang Dayang in Kota Belud, Sabah today.

He explained that the MOH had carried out 516 screening tests and, of the total, 53 Covid-19 positive cases were recorded.

"The MOH also confirmed that the remaining active cases in the locality are under control, with the last case recorded on January 11 and that no more samples were awaiting results,” he said.

In the meantime, he said police also detained 785 individuals for flouting MCO standard operating procedures (SOP) yesterday, with 765 of them being compounded,19 remanded and one released on bail.

Among the offences committed were not wearing face masks (250), not practicing physical distancing (165), failing to provide equipment for recording customers’ particulars (137), operating premises beyond permissible hours/without approval (38), unauthorised inter-district/state travel (31) and others (164).

On Op Benteng, he said authorities arrested 33 illegal immigrants and seized four land vehicles yesterday. — Bernama