THE area surrounding Pudu market is now under semi-enhanced movement-control order (SEMCO), said Kuala Lumpur police chief Mazlan Lazim.

It is not under the enhanced movement-control order (EMCO), Mazlan said.

“It is not a lockdown but an exercise to ‘empower’ the movement-control order (MCO).

“It’s not an EMCO or tightening of the MCO. It’s just similar to what we did at the Jalan Raja Bot wet market in Chow Kit,” he told the media via WhatsApp today.

The Chow Kit market in Jalan Raja Bot was closed recently for two weeks as the Health Ministry moved to screen workers after detecting Covid-19 cases in the area.

The decision to introduce SEMCO in Pudu comes after the ministry said yesterday that 18 of the new cases in the Federal Territory were from the vicinity.

The area accounted for 30 cases and all of them are foreign workers.

The armed forces erected razor wire around the area early today.

The area has a sizeable Myanmar and refugee population with most of them working in the market and other businesses.

Prior to this morning’s SEMCO, more than 500 migrant workers at the wet market and its surrounding areas were screened for Covid-19 in recent weeks. – May 15, 2020.