KUALA LUMPUR, May 20 — Senior Minister (Security Cluster), Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob today announced that Ipoh is among several other major towns in Perak which will be placed under the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) from Saturday to June 4.

The other towns that will be placed under EMCO are Gerik, Tanjung Malim and Taiping.

It is important to note that the EMCO is no longer the complete lockdown it had been last year, when residents were forbidden from leaving their homes and had essentials delivered.

Under the standard operating procedures for the EMCO now, each household is allowed to have one representative leave the compound to purchase food, essentials and medical supplies from stores.

Ismail in a statement this evening said four districts, namely Kinta, Muallim, Hulu Perak and Larut, Matang and Selama, will be placed under EMCO after all districts recorded a sharp increase in Covid-19 daily cases.

"The Ministry of Health confirmed an increase of 119.3 per cent in cases throughout Perak for a period of 14 days from May 5 to May 18, which is 2,035 cases compared to the 928 cases recorded from April 12 to May 4.

"The increase in cases involved all the four districts,” he said in a statement.

Ismail Sabri explained that the EMCO will be enforced throughout the Pengkalan Hulu sub-district in the Hulu Perak district while in the Kinta district, the Hulu Kinta sub-district will be placed under EMCO, which involves the whole of Ipoh, Chemor, Lahat and Tanjung Rambutan.

As for the Muallim and Larut, Matang and Selama district, the EMCO will be enforced in East Hulu Bernam sub-district and Taiping sub-district respectively.

Ismail Sabri said that the government decided to implement EMCO in the four districts after conducting a risk assessment with various agencies in the movement control order (MCO) technical committee.

"The implementation of EMCO is to control the movement of people in all the sub-districts to further curb the spread of Covid-19 infection to other communities,” he explained.

Malaysia’s Covid-19 situation deteriorated further today, with the country reporting new records of 6,806 infections and 59 deaths.

*An earlier version of this article contained an error which has since been rectified.