PASIR GUDANG, Jan 29 — The Johor police will have an additional 500 officers in monitoring teams for patrol duties, following the increase in Covid-19 cases in the state.
Johor police chief Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said at present there are 241 teams deployed state-wide to ensure that the standard operating procedure (SOP) compliance is adhered to.
“An additional 500 monitoring teams will start duty tomorrow and a team will consist of three personnel and an officer.
“These teams will involve mobile patrol car units (MPV) and motorcycle patrol units (URB) for that purpose.
“Through the additional monitoring teams, many locations can be reached in the enforcement of SOPs, where surprise inspections can be carried out,” said Ayob Khan during a press conference after inspecting the SOP compliance at a factory’s hostel here today.
Ayob Khan said apart from monitoring vehicles on the road, patrols will be carried out in residential areas of Covid-19 patients who undergo self-quarantine at home or at their respective hostels.
At the same time, he said police were awaiting information from the Ministry of Health (MOH) related to Covid-19 positive patients who are quarantined at home.
“The information and data is important, especially in the red zone areas, to facilitate monitoring tasks of those quarantined at home,” he said, adding that this is to ensure that they will fully comply with the given instructions.
Ayob Khan explained that during the previous movement control order (MCO), the police were provided with data of those serving home quarantine but this time it is not supplied.
He said despite the current SOP compliance level being at 97 per cent, enforcement should still be carried out to prevent those quarantined at home from breaking their quarantine.
“We (police) are concerned about those undergoing home quarantine as there is no one to check whether they are at home or not,” he said.
In a separate matter, Ayob Khan said since the implementation of the second MCO, more than 1,000 people in the state have been compounded for violating SOPs.
He added that the number of those compounded had increased a few days ago and this did not reflect that the police were stricter in their enforcement, but it was to ensure that the community complied with the SOPs because the Covid-19 positive cases have continued to increase.