In a statement today, he said this follows advice and risk analysis by the health ministry due to a surge in Covid-19 cases in these two districts.

The MCO will last for 14 days starting from 12.01am tomorrow until Feb 1.

Ismail noted there was a drastic rise in cases in Seremban in the last 14 days, from 777 to 876 cases.

“Besides that, a lot of subdistricts in Seremban were also red zones. Seven of the nine subdistricts are red zones and the number of cases reported in the seven subdistricts are around 56 to 283.”

Similarly, in Port Dickson, Ismail said the health ministry had also confirmed a surge in Covid-19 positive cases in the past two weeks.

On a related matter, Ismail said the enhanced MCO at Kampung Timbang Dayang, Kota Belud, Sabah will end as scheduled today.

The health ministry has carried out 516 screenings with 53 total positive cases recorded. He said the ministry has confirmed that the remaining active cases were under control.

Meanwhile, Ismail said police arrested 785 people yesterday over MCO-related offences. A total of 765 were issued compounds, 19 were remanded and one was given bail.

Among the offences include premises opening beyond allowed opening times/opening despite not being allowed to operate (38), flouting physical distancing rules (165), failure to wear face masks (250), failure to provide materials for contact tracing or registration (137), crossing state or district borders without permission (31) and others (164).

A total of 2,588 compliance task force teams were deployed to conduct checks on supermarkets, restaurants, hawker stalls, factories, banks, among others.

Ismail also said police caught 33 illegal immigrants and seized four vehicles under Op Benteng. Enforcement set up 428 roadblocks for monitoring yesterday.

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