BATU GAJAH – Police have no power to cancel the compounds issued under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 432), Perak Police chief Datuk Mior Faridalathrash Wahid said.
He said the police, as well as other law enforcement agencies, were only entrusted to issue the compounds against individuals who violated the Act, and if anyone were dissatisfied, they could file an appeal to the District Health Office.
“Cancelling the compounds issued under Act 432 is not a police prerogative. It’s different from traffic summonses where the police have the power to cancel or even reduce the amount.
“Under Act 432, the police jurisdiction is only in issuing the compounds,” he told reporters here today in response to the allegation that a police officer had cancelled the compound issued under Act 432 against an individual recently.
He also advised the public to verify the authenticity of the information they received through social media before deciding to spread it.
Personnel tests positive
Melaka Police chief Datuk Abdul Majid Mohd Ali in a related development has revealed that a total of 83 close contacts of two Melaka Police Headquarters Contingent (IPK) personnel, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, have been identified, said .
He said the two women personnel, a sub-inspector and a civil servant aged 30 and 53, are from the logistics division of the IPK.
“The close contacts who have been identified comprised officers, personnel as well as family members and 45 of them have been ordered to undergo home quarantine.
“One of the victims was infected by the child of a friend and the other by her sister who went back to her hometown outside Melaka,” he told a press conference here today.
Abdul Majid said both the personnel had been sent to the COVID-19 Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centre (PKRC) at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) in Selangor for treatment.
He said the situation would not affect the commitment of the Melaka police contingent in carrying out their daily duties or enforcing compliance with standard operating procedures (SOP) to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
He added that the Melaka police contingent had taken various preventive measures to curb the spread of the virus among its personnel, including carrying out disinfection processes on the Melaka IPK building as well as assisting the Ministry of Health (MOH) to identify the close contacts.
Integrated operation
The Road Transport Department (RTD) meanwhile, recorded 321 traffic offences by road users during a two-day integrated operation Codenamed @ Op COVID-19 with the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) during the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO).
RTD director-general Datuk Zailani Hashim, said the highest number of offences involved 43 expired road tax and the rest were for other offences under the Road Transport Act 1987 (Act 33).
He said the operation was carried out during the enforcement of MCO, Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) and Recovery MCO (RMCO) nationwide from Jan 16 to Jan 26 on compliance with standard operating procedures (SOP) to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Focus was also on aspects of inter-state travel offences involving commercial vehicles such as buses, passengers with no letters for inter-state travel, so we will also focus on that more.
“We will also lookout for offences involving the abuse of travel permits where people can only travel to certain places but they go to other areas as well, if this is not supervised and controlled, these permits will be abused,” he told reporters after conducting a survey at the RTD office at Ampangan Urban Transformation Centre (UTC), here, today.
Asked whether RTD would increase its personnel in the task of assisting the RMP throughout the MCO, CMCO and RMCO, he said the matter would be scrutinised according to need besides working with all enforcement bodies.
The media earlier reported that 1,200 RTD personnel nationwide had been mobilised from Jan 16 to Jan 26 to help the RMP to curb the spread of COVID-19 which was seen to be increasing, among others due to non-compliance with SOPs by the local community.
In the meantime, he said the Negeri Sembilan RTD office in Senawang here would be temporarily closed to allow its staff to undergo a COVID-19 swab tests today and tomorrow and during the closure, all matters will be transferred to the RTD branches in Kuala Pilah, Jempol and UTC Seremban .
“If the test results are obtained tomorrow, on Wednesday the counter will be reopened but perhaps not in full capacity,” he said.
Meanwhile, Zailani asked the public to utilise the services of RTD Mobile Counter for certain transactions in order to limit public gatherings and movement.
