The government has decided to sync operating hours for all businesses amid confusion among business owners, having previously allowed food outlets to operate until 10pm.
This means the operating hours for convenience stores, sundry shops, pharmacies, laundromats, pet food and optical shops will be extended from the current 8pm cut-off time to 10pm, starting today (January 29th).
During his daily press briefing yesterday (January 28th), Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the decision was made following another risk assessment done by the Health Ministry (MOH).
“We understand there is a lot of confusion which has led to challenges for the enforcement of the timing and there are a lot of applications to extend the operating hours of their businesses. This standardisation is also to facilitate the authorities’ monitoring and enforcement,” he said.
Ismail added that the government will be amending the Emergency Ordinance to impose heavier penalties on those who break the rules under the Movement Control Order (MCO) and those who fail to comply with COVID-19 SOPs.
He further explained that he had hoped there was no need to impose stricter enforcement on the matter, but the reality was that it was needed, as many Malaysians still don’t bother to adhere to SOPs put in place.
Yesterday, a total of 494 people were arrested for offences including not wearing face masks (112), failure to provide materials for visitors to register (67), attempting inter-district and interstate travel without permission (62), failure to practise physical distancing (56) and others (197).
Please continue to follow SOPs and stay safe, guys!
by Kyle Roshen Jacob
