SOME economic activities are allowed to operate during the movement-control order, which will start tomorrow, with operating hours of between 6am to 8pm, and exceptions for certain activities.

Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said this included restaurants, eateries, street hawkers, as well as food courts, but with no dine-in, and options only for delivery, takeaway, and drive-through.

Besides that, he said, kiosks, grocery stores, convenience stores and shops selling daily necessities, laundries (except self-service laundry) were allowed to operate with the same time restrictions.

“Daily markets and farmers’ markets can operate from 7am to 2pm, with wholesale markets from 12.01am to 6am and 11am to 4pm,” he said in his daily press conference today.

The recently announced MCO, which takes effect from tomorrow to January 26, involves Penang, Selangor, the Federal Territories (Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan), Malacca, Johor and Sabah.

Six other states – Pahang, Perak, Negri Sembilan, Kedah, Terengganu and Kelantan were placed under the conditional MCO (CMCO) with Perlis and Sarawak under the recovery MCO (RMCO), for the same period.

Commenting further, Ismail Sabri said petrol stations were allowed to operate from 6am to 10pm, except those located along the highway, which were allowed to operate for 24 hours.

Hospitals and clinics, he said, are allowed to operate round the clock, while pharmacies could only open from 6am to 8pm.

Meanwhile, he said those MCO areas could only travel within a radius of 10km, with only two people allowed in car, except for those who required medical attention, where a maximum of three people could be present in a car, besides being allowed to travel beyond the 10km radius.

Commenting on childcare centres, nurseries, and kindergartens being allowed to operate throughout the MCO, he said the decision was made after receiving reports that parents were facing difficulty in looking after their children as public and private service offices were still open.

“It will be difficult for parents to work if the children cannot be sent (to these centres), and we actually impose very strict standard operating procedure on parents who send them there.

“Also, while the children are at these centres, very strict SOP need to be implemented by those running them,” he said. – Bernama, January 12, 2021.