PAHANG is the latest state to say it will not implement Putrajaya’s conditional movement-control order (MCO) tomorrow, instead making a decision on Friday.

Menteri Besar Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail said the state government wanted to see if the conditional MCO was suitable for the state, which has reported a few Covid-19 clusters.

“We will discuss this at the state security council meeting on Friday. Until then, the current arrangement under the MCO remains,” he said in a statement today.

He said the state’s focus now was on dealing with the Covid 19 clusters and did not want any opening up of the economy to result in more new clusters.

Yesterday the Health Ministry revealed that it has detected a new cluster of infections in Temerloh, Pahang.

The infections are in a religious school, Lanchang tahfiz, with six confirmed positive cases, said director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

It was already grappling with a cluster in Kuantan, introduced by a group returning from Bali.

Pahang will be the fourth state to snub Putrajaya’s decision to open up the economy after Sabah, Kedah and Sarawak also rejected the move.

Two other states Selangor and Negri Sembilan have said they are only willing to consider some areas of operation to be opened.

Sabah Chief Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal said the state will not implement the conditional MCO, so the state can stop the spread of Covid-19 and protect its people, he said in a brief statement.

“I call on the people to continue with the fourth phase of the MCO, which is currently in force,” he said, referring to nationwide restrictions ending on May 12.

Yesterday, Kedah and Sarawak declared they would not follow the conditional MCO announced by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin on Friday, which lifted many of the restrictions currently in place.

Kedah Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir said the state wanted to maintain its green-zone status after all its districts were declared free of Covid-19.

Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah said Sarawak will maintain the status quo on directives and standard operating procedures given to industries and businesses approved to operate under the first, second and third phases of the MCO.

State industries and businesses receiving International Trade and Industry Ministry approval to resume operations from Monday are also required to get the state government’s approval.

Selangor also appeared to snub Putrajaya when Menteri Besar Amirudin Shaari said the state won’t allow all businesses to resume operations.

Amirudin said the state is reviewing the level of preparedness of local authorities to handle the matter.

Similarly, Negri Sembilan also has said it will not open up the state entirely.

The state government will discuss the conditional MCO enforcement and necessary guidelines with local authorities to ensure that there is no spike in Covid-19 cases.

The decision comes as the Health Ministry said yesterday the number of new Covid-19 cases in the country was back in triple digits, with 105 new infections, the highest in 16 days.

Noor Hisham said 4,326 people have recovered from the virus, while the accumulated number of cases is 6,176. – May 3, 2020.