GEORGE TOWN, June 20 — More than 1,700 premises in Penang have been ordered to close by the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) and Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) for violating the standard operating procedure (SOP).

State Housing, Local Government and Town and Country Planning committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo said today that the state government would continue to prioritise public health and safety by ensuring that the SOP is strictly complied with.

"I believe that we have already come to a stage where everybody knows what must be done. We also want to help the economy, but the most important part right now is to ensure public security to stop the Covid-19 transmission,” he told a press conference before distributing food items to frontliners at a hotel quarantine centre in Tanjung Bungah here today.

Jagdeep also said that, to date, both MBPP and MBSP had conducted SOP checks in over 1.99 million premises throughout the state since the beginning of the first nationwide movement control order (MCO) on March 18 last year.

He said that the SOP compliance rate in Penang was still high, with the recorded compliance rate in the island and mainland being at 99.5 per cent and 99.3 per cent respectively.

"We expect to reach two million SOP checks by tomorrow,” he added. — Bernama