IPOH, Oct 16 — The Perak State Security Council today announced that there is no need yet to implement an enhanced movement control order (EMCO) at the Kamunting Correctional Detention Centre (Kemta) that gave Perak 48 out of 52 new Covid-19 cases in the state.

Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu, who chairs the council, said that the council found that the infection only took place at one block in the detention centre, which was reserved for at-risk detainees.

“As a measure to control the risk of infection among officers, personnel and their families, Kemta management has tightened the personnel’s duty procedure at the centre.

“The number of personal assigned to work in this block has also been limited and they are required to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) while on duty,” he said in a statement.

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Ahmad Faizal also said that the Kemta is actively cooperating with the Taiping Hospital and the district Health Office to curb the transmission chain at the detention centre.

“Apart from that, the management also ensured that there was no contact between the members on duty and the detainees.

“The movement in and out of detainees has also been stopped to prevent new transmission,” he said.

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He also revealed that the are no new positive cases in the Batu cluster.

“Therefore, the people, especially the residents in the area around Kamunting and Taiping are advised not to panic and not spread unauthentic information.

“The state government calls on the public to continue to adopt to ‘new norm’ to curb the spread of Covid-19 among the community,” he advised.

Taiping has become the first district in Perak to be declared a red zone in the recovery movement control order (RMCO) phase after 77 Covid-19 infections were detected in the last 14 days.

The State Health Department said that 48 new Covid-19 positive cases were reported in the district as of October 15 are from the detention centre.