He said that even in states under the movement control order (MCO) such as Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang, business activities and restaurants have started to operate.

“Therefore it is no longer relevant to have the 10km travel restriction,” he told a press conference today.

However, he said the inter-district and interstate travel ban will remain.

“We do not allow this (interstate travel) yet because according to reports from the health ministry, there were 11 or 12 clusters involving interstate travel before this.

“Previously, we lifted some restrictions and many went to other states for holidays or back to their hometowns, and as a result, a few infection cases happened,” he said.

He said interstate travel was a contributing factor to the spread of Covid-19 to several states, which were previously green zones, like Kelantan.

He added that inter-district travel was similarly still banned to curb infections from any movement between differently zoned localities, especially within larger states like Pahang.

“We will continue to get the views of the health ministry to see if there can be any changes. For the interest of public health, we must remain patient for now,” he said

Meanwhile, on the arrests yesterday, Ismail said, 596 individuals were arrested, of whom 532 were given compounds and 64 were remanded.

The offences were flouting physical distancing rules (155), crossing interstate or inter-district borders without permission (134), not wearing face masks (121), failure to provide material to take down customers’ details (83), premises operating beyond permitted hours/operating despite not being allowed to open (17) and others (86).

On a related matter, enforcement authorities arrested one illegal immigrant and two smugglers, and seized two vehicles as part of Op Benteng.

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