BUTTERWORTH: The Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) has ordered that Robina EcoPark in Telok Air Tawar be closed for five days beginning tomorrow, after visitors at the recreational park failed to comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs).
Mayor Datuk Rozali Mohamud said the move to close the park until Wednesday was following police advice and to curb the spread of Covid-19 infection.
“We decided to prohibit the public from visiting the park because many did not adhere to the SOPs and the crowd capacity last weekend was between 700 to 1,000 people,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Seberang Perai Utara (SPU) district police chief ACP Noorzainy Mohd Noor said police monitoring the park yesterday found that the number of visitors was between 1,000 and 2,000 at any one time, and they were found to have violated the National Recovery Plan (PPN) Phase Two SOPs, as face masks were not worn and there was no physical distancing.
“Some of the visitors were partially vaccinated and were not adhering to the SOPs, so I informed the mayor, district office and district health officer of the matter and urged that the park be shut down temporarily.
“The move is also to avoid any negative perception among local residents and to prevent the issue from going viral on social media. Besides, the park is located in the red zone area,“ he said.
In another development, Noorzainy said police detained three men and confiscated 634 packages of ketum juice, 15 kg of ketum leaves and paraphernalia to process ketum juice worth RM10,000, in a raid on a house in Kampung Manggis, here yesterday.
He said, in the 8 pm raid, the three men aged between 28 and 47 years were believed to be waiting for buyers to collect the items.
The trio, with past drug and criminal records and tested positive for drugs, have been remanded for three days to facilitate investigations under Section 30(3) of the Poisons Act 1952.- Bernama
