Penang Seaside Park Ordered To Close After Visitors Flout Sops

---

 
The mayor says the move to close the park until Wednesday was done on police advice. (Facebook pic)BUTTERWORTH: The Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP) has ordered Robina EcoPark in Telok Air Tawar to be closed for five days beginning tomorrow after visitors at the recreational park failed to comply with SOPs.
Mayor Rozali Mohamud said the move to close the park until Wednesday followed police advice and was done to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections.
“We decided to prohibit the public from visiting the park because many did not adhere to SOPs and the crowd capacity last weekend was between 700 and 1,000 people,” he said in a statement.
However, police monitoring the park yesterday found that the number of visitors was between 1,000 and 2,000 at any one time, said Seberang Perai Utara district police chief Noorzainy Mohd Noor.
He said many were found to have violated the national recovery plan’s 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 SOPs, so I informed the mayor, district office and the 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,” he said.
In another development, Noorzainy said police detained three men and confiscated 634 packages of ketum juice, 15kg 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 that in the 8pm raid, the three men aged between 28 and 47 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. - FMT

---