Under the latest rules, all sports and recreational activities in commercial premises or facilities as well as in public and open areas have been suspended. In addition, cinemas have been instructed to close and eateries limited to takeaway and delivery services.

Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming said it does not appear as though the government is keeping to its previous assurances given by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin that restrictions would be more targeted.

“I call upon the authorities to use the past MySejahtera data (assuming it has been stored properly and not deleted) to identify how many clusters were created as a result of outdoor jogging and exercise as well as watching movies in cinemas and exercising in gyms,” Ong said in a statement today.

“If the number of clusters is not large (which I think will be the case), then the National Security Council should immediately reverse the ban on outdoor jogging and exercise and allow gyms and cinemas to reopen with the already strict SOPs in place.”

He said the same analysis should be done for restaurants using the newly developed Hotspot Identification by Dynamic Engagement (HIDE) detection system.

“If there are some restaurants and outlets that have been the source of Covid-19 clusters in the past, then these places should be investigated and closed down temporarily if the SOPs were not strictly followed,” he said.

“It does not make sense to have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach when MySejahtera login data is available to the authorities and a hotspot detection system has been finally developed by the Malaysian authorities.”