Selangor now allows restaurants, convenience stores to open until 2am

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 13 — The Selangor state government has now allowed restaurants and convenience stores located in the state to continue opening until 2am.

Ng Sze Han, the chairman of Selangor’s Local Government, Public Transport and New Village Development Committee, made the announcement today.

“Following the announcement that the operating hours for restaurants and convenience stores are allowed to be extended until 2am by the National Security Council, the Selangor state government has decided to also allow restaurants and convenience stores in the state of Selangor to operate until 2am,” he said in a brief statement.

Ng also noted that the Covid-19 situation in Selangor remained under control throughout the recovery movement control order (RMCO) period, further saying that it was now time to tackle and work on the recovery of the economy.

“However, prevention of the spread of Covid-19 is still the state government’s priority. In line with that, visitors and store operators are reminded to always comply with the SOP that is fixed by the National Security Council and to practise physical distancing,” he said, referring to Covid-19 prevention measures and standard operating procedures.

On September 10, defence minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the National Security Council has decided to extend the allowed operating hours of all food outlets and convenience stores in the country until 2am starting from September 11.

Ismail Sabri said this was in response to business operators’ complaints about their income being affected by the limited operating hours until midnight.

Yesterday, the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) however announced that it has decided to keep the operating hours for all businesses in Kuala Lumpur --- which would include restaurants and convenience stores --- until 12am during the RMCO period.

DBKL explained that the uniform closing time of 12am for all businesses in Kuala Lumpur would facilitate DBKL and other agencies’ monitoring of the public’s compliance with standard operating procedures during the RMCO, having observed from its daily monitoring that the level of compliance still needs to be improved.