The Penang Remand Prison and its staff quarters will be placed under the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) from today (Oct 15), said Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob yesterday.

He said the decision was made on the advice of the Ministry of Health (MOH) and taking into consideration the spike in new COVID-19 positive cases involving the prison cluster.

The implementation of the CMCO, he said, would allow it to control movements in and out of the area as well as facilitate COVID-19 screenings.

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“The EMCO will involve a total of 2,830 individuals, comprising 2,306 inmates, 304 prison staff and their families living in the quarters as well as 220 other prison staff and their families who do not live there,” he said at a press conference from his home that was streamed live via the Defence Ministry’s Facebook page yesterday.

Ismail Sabri said that following the implementation of the EMCO, no movement in and out of the area would be permitted, while movement among prison staff would be determined based on the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by the Prisons Department.

He also said that food and basic necessities would be distributed to the affected area and it would be coordinated by the North East District Disaster Operations Control Centre.

He also pointed out that inmates set to be released during the EMCO period would be isolated from others under remand.

“If the result of their test is negative, the inmates may be quarantined at a place to be decided by the Penang State Disaster Management Committee before being released.

“Those who test positive will be sent to hospital for treatment,” he said.

Ismail Sabri also said that police arrested 446 people yesterday for flouting the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO).

Of the total, 407 were issued compound notices, 37 were remanded and two released on bail for offences which included not wearing face masks, failure to provide facilities for recording details of customers and conducting gambling activities.

Source: EdgeProp.my