Steep fines for SOP violations haven't curbed Covid-19 spread: DAP man

Steep compounds for Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) violations have not curbed the spread of the pandemic, said DAP's Syahredzan Johan.

The lawyer said when the ordinance to raise compounds to RM10,000 for individuals and RM50,000 for corporations was enacted on March 11 - the number of new Covid-19 cases that day was 1,647 with 319,364 cases in total.

While cases were on the decline for a while, the number of daily infections has been on the uptrend since early April.

Yesterday, 3,332 new Covid-19 cases were reported, and the cumulative total is now at 404,925.

The number of active cases (28,093) is also significantly higher than the 17,544 on March 11.

"Previously, Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said increasing the compounds was to 'protect the rakyat' and not to oppress them.

"However, it is clear from that data...