by Nancy Nais
KUCHING, April 1: Police monitoring and patrols in certain areas last night suggested that overall the wider community here is complying with the Movement Control Order (MCO) to reduce the spread of Covid-19 outbreak.
Last night, DayakDaily was given the opportunity to join a Padawan police district team in Ops Snapcheck which involved patrolling business premises and residential areas around MJC, e-Mart Batu Kawa, Sg Maong, Malihah Matang and Jalan Stephen Yong.
Led by Inspector Haziz Marritu, the patrol was to ensure that the community complies with Sarawak’s MCO whereby all business premises including 24-hour convenience stores must close between 7pm to 7am.
Members of the public are also not allowed to go out or roam around.
However, those who are working under the Essential Services category are allowed to go to work or return home within the MCO period.
Those who need to commute between home and work after 7pm to 7am require a special travel permit which they may obtain through their employers.
Anyone who defies the order can be arrested and charged under Section 186 of the Penal Code, Section 22 (b) of the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act 1998 (Act 342) and Regulation 3 of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Declaration of Local Area of Infection) 2020, which can be charged under Rule 7 of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases.
“Based on our patrol and examinations carried out on individuals who are still driving on the road, we found that most of them were medical personnel, hospital workers, and security personnel. So overall, the community understands what MCO is all about and police are seeing greater public cooperation,” Haziz said.
At about 10pm, one family with a young child, who were on a motorcycle was stopped at a random roadblock conducted by Haziz and his team.
Upon questioning, the child’s father showed and explained his son’s forehead injury (with stitches) had reopened after a fall earlier.
Together with his wife, they were on their way with the child to Sarawak General Hospital for medical treatment.
As it was an urgent medical case, no action was taken, and police advised them to head home immediately afterwards.
Meanwhile, Haziz pointed out that police will continue to monitor public movement and traffic through random roadblocks on a 24-hour basis.
“We advise these people (with permits) to go straight home and remind them that they are not supposed to be outside,” he said. — DayakDaily
