Ismail Sabri urges public to report home quarantine violators, thanks Penang folk for exposing violator at bank

KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 ― Members of the public are urged to report individuals wearing the pink Covid-19 quarantine wristbands if they are seen in public places instead of being indoors, Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said.

He also thanked the public for alerting the authorities on one individual found trying to enter a bank in Penang while still under mandatory home quarantine.

“In this regard, I want to express my utmost gratitude to the people of Butterworth who were alert in identifying an individual wearing the wristband, who tried to queue at a bank recently.

“I also want to express my gratitude and thankfulness to the bank security guard for taking quick action to prevent the individual wearing the quarantine wristband from entering the bank. This definitely can reduce or prevent the spread of the Covid-19 infection.

“Police will take strict action towards irresponsible people like this. As I said, they will no longer receive compounds, but detained to be charged in court,” Ismail, who is in charge of the security cluster, said during his press briefing in Putrajaya.

Ismail said that between July 24 and 29, 2,696 individuals who flew into Malaysia from 22 nations have all been placed under observation in 11 hotels and five Public Training Institutes (ILAs) in seven states.

He said that of the number, 11 have been sent to hospitals.

Ismail added that yesterday, the police had carried out 1,711 checks on those placed under the 14-day home quarantine.

On the government’s Ops Benteng operation to weed out immigrants trying to sneak into the country, Ismail said that five foreigners have been detained, during the 62 police roadblocks held, in which 35,770 vehicles were checked.

He said that police had also detained 213 people for violating the recovery movement control order (RMCO), out of which 22 were remanded, 22 given bail while 173 others were slapped with compound fines.