A factory supplying heavy machinery equipment adheres to SOPs following the implementation of MCO 3.0 in Segambut, Kuala Lumpur. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — A total of 810 premises in Malaysia including factories and construction sites were ordered to shut down immediately, over failure to comply with standard operating procedures (SOPs) designed to curb Covid-19, Senior Minister (security cluster) Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today.
In a Facebook post, Hishammuddin who is also the foreign minister, said that these premises were allowed to operate throughout the National Recovery Plan, adding that there should have been “no excuse” for any of these premises to breach the SOPs.
He highlighted that SOP breaches carry a huge risk towards the country’s security, especially in the context of the spreading of Covid-19 infections.
“Since taking on this duty, each day, I receive reports from the compliance operations task force led by the police — in just this one week plus, 810 premises were ordered to be closed immediately due to SOP breaches,” he said of his recent new role as the senior minister (security cluster).
Hishammuddin said these 810 premises included factories, business premises, construction sites and hostels for workers.
He did not however specify the location of these 810 premises, and also did not provide in the Facebook post the dates for the period mentioned.
A quick check by Malay Mail of Hishammuddin’s daily announcements on Covid-19 matters showed that the number of premises ordered to close nationwide due to SOP breaches are 38 (August 8), 25 (August 7), 112 (August 6), 67 (August 5), 71 (August 4), 41 (August 3), 60 (August 2), 34 (August 1), 59 (July 31), 61 (July 30), 67 (July 29), 63 (July 28), 52 (July 27), 60 (July 26).
Malay Mail’s calculations show that when the daily figures for this 14-day period are combined, they come up to the exact figure of 810 as mentioned by Hishammuddin.
In other words, 810 premises were ordered shut during the July 26 to August 8 period. These announcements were always made the next day after the data had been compiled, which meant these announcements were made from July 27 to August 9.
July 27 also happens to be the day when Hishammuddin first took on the role of announcing these daily Covid-19 figures and new developments from the previous spokesman Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob. Ismail Sabri had recently been appointed deputy prime minister, while Hishammuddin was recently appointed a senior minister.
In his Facebook post today, Hishammuddin went on to thank Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin as the chairman of the committee coordinating Covid-19 SOP enforcement and compliance, as well as the police-led task force on operations to ensure compliance for working hard to carry out enforcement throughout the whole country.
“Taking action is not my desire, nor the police’s. But if premises themselves are not responsible, then they have to bear the consequences,” he said.