MORE than 600 people have been arrested for breaching the movement control order since it was enforced on March 18, Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today.

He said in the last 48 hours, 402 were arrested nationwide.

“Police have made 614 arrests nationwide. In the last two days, 402 were detained with 320 on Friday (including the 116 arrested at a mosque) and 162 on Thursday,” he said.

“There are still many cars on the roads but with the arrests we are seeing an improvement in MCO compliance.”

Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador previously said police will be stricter with those who flout the MCO.

The army has also been roped in to help police enforce the MCO.

Meanwhile in a separate matter, Ismail said the Housing and Local Government Ministry will disinfect high-risk public spaces, including public housing units as part of the government’s measures to fight the Covid-19 outbreak.

Ismail said the disinfection process will be carried out on March 30.

“The focus will be on high-risk areas, after which we will disinfect public housing units,” he said.

He added that local authorities have so far disinfected 11 wet markets, as well as the Masjid Jamek Sri Petaling, which sparked a huge spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country.

To date, 26 fatalities have been recorded in the country and the number of positive cases has reached over 2,000.

A total of 259 patients have recovered. – March 28, 2020.