ENHANCED movement-control orders (EMCO) have been placed on a prison in Kedah and two districts in Sabah following a spike in Covid-19 infections.

In Kedah, this affects the Pokok Sena Prison, effective from midnight of October 11 to 24.

In Sabah, the EMCO has been ordered on the Semporna and Kunak districts for the same 14-day period.

Six localities in Semporna will be affected – Kg Bangau-Bangau, Kg Panji, Kg Air, Kg Selamat, Kg Simunul, and Kg Pinggir Bakau.

In Kunak, one locality is affected, namely Kg Pangkalan.

Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who announced this today, said all residents of these areas are not allowed to leave their homes while all roads leading to and from these places will be blocked.

Any movement outside these zones for emergencies will require permission from police.

All schools and houses of worship are to be closed for the 14-day period, and no economic activity allowed. All sports, social, cultural and recreational activities are also banned.

Food supplies will be distributed by the state government and the state disaster operations centre, Ismail Sabri said.

The EMCO is to enable the health authorities to do wide-scale testing of residents, he added.

At the Pokok Sena Prison, all movements in and out of the facility are barred, including visits to inmates. The prison has 3,262 detainees and 587 staff.

Meanwhile, the EMCO for Tawau Prison and its Taman Ehsan prison quarters in Tawau, Sabah, will be extended from tomorrow until October 20.

The previous lockdown was to have expired today, Ismail Sabri said, but the National Security Council (NSC) was of the view that the risk of more transmission was still high.

Meanwhile, the conditional MCO imposed on the Tawau, Kunak, Semporna and Lahad Datu districts until October 12, will now be extended to October 26.

Movement curbs in the four districts have been in place since September 29. – October 9, 2020.