TWO villages, one each in Sabah and Sarawak, will be placed under the enhanced movement-control order (EMCO) from midnight after a spike in Covid-19 cases, said Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

The senior minister said the EMCO will be in force until March 8.

He said the affected villages are Kg Emperoh Kambu in Padawan, Sarawak and Kg Tanah Merah in Kota Marudu, Sabah.

He said as of today, as many 60 cases from Kg Emperoh have been reported positive, while 57 were reported from Kg Tanah Merah. 

An evaluation by health authorities found that Kg Emperoh has a high infectivity rate, hence the need for an enhanced lockdown to conduct Covid-19 screening on approximately 1,215 residents.

Over 226 residents in Kg Tanah Merah have been screened for Covid-19, leaving health authorities to test another 545 people once the EMCO begins tomorrow. 

After seven straight days of reporting cases in the range of 2,000, Malaysia yesterday logged 3,297 new Covid-19 infections. 

The country also had 4,456 patients discharged from the hospital as of 12pm today, taking the recovery total to 249,209.

This brings the number of active cases in the country to 33,304, with 209 admitted in the intensive care unit and 91 of them requiring respiratory support. – February 22, 2021.