ISKANDAR PUTERI, Aug 12 ― The Johor state assembly sitting, which was supposed to start today until August 22, has been postponed to next week to enable a Covid-19 risk assessment to be carried out, said its Speaker Suhaizan Kaiat.

He said based on the schedule, the session which would have resumed on Sunday will instead be postponed to allow the state assembly management to carry out improvement on the level of safety and management of the standard operating procedures (SOP).

"The next session will be on Sunday, August 22 at 9.30am. This is based on the advice by the Johor Ruler Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar and in accordance to the assessment made by Johor Health Department to give room for the state assembly’s management to adhere to the SOP for Covid-19,” said Suhaizan when addressing the reopening of the Johor state assembly in Kota Iskandar here this morning.

Earlier in his decree, Sultan Ibrahim expressed his concern over the current Covid-19 situation, especially the new variant which is more contagious and spreads to the point of claiming the lives of people.

He asked for a health risk assessment to be carried out daily at the state assembly and if there was a high-risk threat, the Speaker should adjourn the session.

Meanwhile, Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Hasni Mohammad said the postponement was done because of the need to enhance the SOP compliance to prevent the same situation in Parliament from happening at the Johor state assembly.

He said the state government wants to avoid the incident that occurred in Parliament due to cases of Covid-19 infection.

"The Speaker is refining the set SOP involving the duration of how many days to convene and how long the sessions will be held,” he said.

Hasni explained that to ensure the safety of the 56 state assemblymen, the Johor government will form a movement bubble by ensuring that they will be in a safe location.

"We will form a bubble for the movement of all state assemblymen to ensure that they will be in a safer location to avoid the risk of Covid-19 infection.

"Additionally, we will also be looking at installing transparent barriers among the assemblymen as I believed all of them should attend the meeting as the capacity inside the state assembly hall is large,” said Hasni, adding that the state government will announce the SOPs a few days before August 22.

Today is the fourth session of the Johor state assembly and it is the first state assembly sitting to be held during the National Recovery Plan.