Ismail said the factories, which are involved in essential services, must adhere to social distancing and other guidelines issued by the international trade and industry ministry (MITI) under the movement control order (MCO).
“They’ve always been allowed to open but before this, only 50% of their workers were allowed to work. Now, we allow 100% of their workers,” he told his daily press conference here today.
Ismail said local authorities should allow factories with operation permits by MITI to open. “Maybe there is confusion here. This will be discussed with the housing and local government ministry. Every factory approved by MITI will get approval by the local councils,” he said.
On the new ruling allowing two people from the same family to travel in one car, he said this would not cause overcrowding in markets.
For example, he said, supermarkets had been following the SOPs, including social distancing and crowd control, and this would continue.
Ismail also said SOPs would be observed by AirAsia, which is resuming domestic flights. “Before people fly anywhere, they must have permission and approval by police for the purpose of their flights.”
He also said people returning to Sabah and Sarawak were subject to mandatory quarantine of 14 days.
As of yesterday, a total of 825 people who had just entered the country had also been quarantined nationwide.
Two hundred and thirty-two quarantine centres had been opened so far, housing 17,447 Malaysians who were under mandatory isolation.
Since April 17, a total of 11,119 individuals had completed their quarantine and were allowed to go home.
Ismail said 3,841 students would be returning to their hometowns, involving intrazone travel, tonight.
This included movement within the eastern zones (Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu), southern zones (Negeri Sembilan, Johor and Melaka) and zones in Perak and Sarawak.
He said the higher education ministry would arrange for 1,029 students to return to their hometowns in the east coast, using 80 buses and 73 private vehicles. Besides that, 1,366 students from southern zones would be returning home in 76 buses.
Ismail also said the police and army conducted 828 roadblocks nationwide yesterday, checking 633,821 vehicles. A total of 6,203 business premises were also checked by enforcement authorities.
Meanwhile, public sanitation works were still being carried out by the housing and local government ministry, he said.
Yesterday, 121 disinfection programmes were conducted in 12 states, involving sanitation in 38 red and yellow zones.
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