KUALA LUMPUR: The Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 that comes into effect tomorrow is not the same as the first MCO because of the need to provide a balance between the health and livelihood of the people.
Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said even though the country has seen three MCOs since March 18 last year, there have been complaints that the SOPs in all MCOs were not standardised.
"The government is aware of these queries on why are the SOPs are not streamlined. If you recall in the first MCO 1.0 all sectors were shuta down and everyone was told to stay home. But we then realised that by doing so the most affected were the smalltime traders and business operators.
"So, during the MCO 2.0, we wanted to strike a balance between the health and livelihood of the rakyat, especially the B40 group. Thus, we allowed businesses to operate under strict SOPs, but all social activities were disallowed during this period which started in January.
"Fortunately we managed to flatten the curve and bring down the infection rate after a spike in December which was triggered by a state election," he said.
Ismail Sabri said in this round, the government has decided to enforce MCO 3.0, which is similar to MCO 2.0, where businesses and economic sectors would still be allowed to operate but under tighter SOPs.
"Yes, it's true that we will flatten the Covid-19 curve faster and reduce the infection rate at a quicker speed, if the government enforces a MCO like the one we did the first time around. But, that would mean the economy would be losing RM2.4 billion daily throughout that period," he said.
Ismail Sabri said small scale businesses would also suffer as a result of not being able to operate.
"I have had people ask me to not impose the first MCO, where businesses were not allowed to operate and people were told to stay home unless it was really necessary to do so. But after taking into consideration the risk factors and livelihood of the public, the government has decided this is the best way forward.
"Even though it might not be able to flatten the curve fast, it's a method that has been tried and proven to work," he said.
He said the National Security Council has streamlined the list of SOPs for all sectors and the lists will be available to the public on the respective ministries websites.