By Mei Kuan
Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Senior Minister (Security Cluster) via a live media conference today (May 30) announced the list of essential services which are allowed to operate and the related standard operating procedures (SOPs) during the period of lockdown nationwide beginning June 1.
All economic and social activities are not permitted except for the following:
- Food and beverage including those for animals
- Healthcare and medical including dietary supplement, animal clinics and veterinary services
- Water
- Energy
- Security and safety, defence, emergency, welfare and humanitarian aid
- Solid waste management, public cleanliness and sewage
- Land, water or air transportation
- Port services, shipyard and airport including cargo handling etc
- Communications including media, telecommunication and internet, post and courier as well as broadcasting (for the purpose of delivering information, news and the like only)
- Banking, insurance and takaful
- Community credit (pawnbroking and Ar Rahnu)
- E-commerce and information technology
- Fuel and lubricant
- Hotel and boarding only for the purposes of quarantine, isolation and jobs for essential services, not for tourism purposes
- Critical repairs, maintenance and construction
- Forestry services (limited to enforcement) and wildlife
- Logistics limited to delivery of essential services
All manufacturing sectors are not allowed to operate except the following with the capacity of working employees permitted at 60% only:
- Aerospace
- Food and beverage
- Packaging and printing materials related to food ingredients and health only
- Self care and cleaning items
- Medical and healthcare products including dietary supplement
- Self care items, personal protective equipment (PPE) including rubber gloves and fire safety equipment
- Components for medical devices
- Electric and electronic (linked to global economic chain)
- Oil and gas including petrochemicals and petrochemical products
- Machines and equipment related to health and food only
- Textile for the manufacturing of PPEs only
- Fuel and lubricant
Agriculture, fishery, livestock, farming and its chain are also permitted to operate.
As for critical repairs, maintenance and construction, the optimal working capacity is permitted.
The following business sectors are permitted to operate from 8am till 8pm only:
- Shopping malls are to close except for premises, hypermarkets, supermarkets and departmental stores with sections for food and beverage, basic necessities, pharmacies, self care, convenience stores, mini marts and restaurants for takeaways and deliveries to homes
- Supermarkets, hypermarkets, pharmacies, convenience stores, mini marts, grocery stores and departmental stores to open limited to the sections for food, beverage and basic necessities only
- Restaurants, stalls and food outlets
- Laundries including self-service launderettes
- Animal care and animal food shops
- Optical shops
- Hardware shops
- Automobile workshops, maintenance and spare parts
- E-commerce (all categories of products)
- Wholesale and distribution (all categories of essential service products only)
Below are the related SOPs effective June 1 till 14 nationwide:
- Only two representatives per household are allowed to leave home to obtain supplies of food, medicine, dietary supplement and basic necessities. A maximum of three including the patient are permitted to leave home to obtain healthcare services, medicine and screening tests, for safety or emergency within a radius of not more than 10km from residence or to a venue nearest to residence if the healthcare service or medicine is not available within the 10km radius.
- The number of passengers in a taxi and e-hailing vehicle is limited to two only including the driver while the passenger sits in the back passenger seat.
- Public transportation services on land and sea such as bus, LRT, MRT, ERL, Monorail, ferry and others are permitted to operate at 50% vehicle capacity except for flights. Operation hours and frequencies to be determined by the Ministry of Transport.
- The attendance capacity for members of the public service is limited to 20% for essential tasks (not including frontliners, members of safety and defence) and 100% to work from home for those not in essential services. Meanwhile, the capacity for employee attendance of private sectors in essential services including operations and management is limited to 60%.
Generally, all economic sectors related to essential services can operate from 8am till 8pm except:
- Daily markets (pasar harian): 6am till 2pm
- Controlled fresh markets (pasar segar terkawal): 7am till 12 noon
- Permanent farmers’ markets (pasar tani kekal), MyFarm Outlet and Farmers’ Organisation Complex (PPK): 6am till 4pm
- Wholesale markets: 12.01am till 6am and 11am till 4pm
- Petrol stations: 6am till 8pm except those on highways which can operate up to 24 hours
Preschools (taska and tadika), private kindergartens, kindergartens at private, international and expatriate schools as well as mind development centres for children of age 4 to 6 are not permitted to operate except for frontliners and parents who are both working.
Sport and recreational activities done individually at open areas without physical touch are limited to jogging and exercise only with adherence to physical distancing of at least two to three metres and carried out at neighbourhood areas, subject to the ongoing rules of movement control.
“All permission letters for work travels issued by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) are invalid beginning June 1. New applications for permission to travel have to be submitted to the ministries related to the nature of work,” Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob added.
According to him, the aim of the movement control order is to reduce movement.
“Go out only when really necessary,” he advised.
Further information on the SOPs can be assessed at the websites of the National Security Council (www.mkn.gov.my) and the related ministries.
