THE wholesale market in Selayang will be closed until Thursday for sanitation works, said Ismail Sabri Yaakob – a departure from remarks yesterday that the market would remain open under the enhanced movement-control order (EMCO).

The senior minister however maintained that the market is not under EMCO.

“We have closed the surrounding areas. Many of the workers from the wholesale market live there,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.

“The purpose is not to close (the market) for 14 days. We only close for four days, until Thursday, so that sanitation works can be carried out at the wholesale market.

“When we reopen, we want to ensure the area is sanitised. We took action to ensure no possibility of Covid-19 infections.”

Confusion over whether the wholesale market would remain open caused suppliers and traders to suspend their business at the marketing hub this morning when it remained closed.

The disruption in business is expected to cause a shortage of local vegetables in the Klang Valley until the end of the week, after they were told that the market is closed until Friday.

Perikatan Nasional insists the market is open for business but wholesalers who showed up yesterday were told they were barred from entering.

“Not one lorry or car was allowed inside. We were all forced to park on the roadside with our supplies,” said Malaysian Vegetable Wholesalers’ Association president Chong Tek Keong.

Chong told The Malaysian Insight the authorities told members that the market will be closed until Friday because of the EMCO enforced in the Selayang area from yesterday until May 3.

Eight parcels of land surrounding the market was placed under EMCO from yesterday until May 3.

About 15,000 residents and workers will be screened for Covid-19, said Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa yesterday. – April 21, 2020.