As a member of the volunteer corps (Rela) and head of his village, Mr Sarlan Yasmin, 63, is on standby 24 hours a day in case he is needed to distribute food to residents or man roadblocks.
His village, Kampung Datuk Ibrahim Majid, is one of two areas in Simpang Renggam, Johor, which were the first in Malaysia to be placed under total lockdown for two weeks - from March 27 to April 9 - after 61 coronavirus cases were recorded in both areas.
"Three residents are Tabligh (Islamic missionary group) members and had attended the gathering at the Sri Petaling mosque. They are active at the mosque here too," Mr Sarlan told The Sunday Times.
Some 15,000 people attended the massive religious convention in Kuala Lumpur between Feb 27 and March 1, and it became South-east Asia's biggest Covid-19 hot spot.
Yesterday, Malaysia's director-general of health Noor Hisham Abdullah said that about 40,000 people in the country could potentially be infected by the coronavirus from the Tabligh cluster alone. The virus has claimed 57 lives so far, and infected nearly 3,500 people.
Aside from the Tabligh, two other events raised the risk factor for the village. Several residents had returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca on March 2 and there was a wedding in which 500 guests mingled with one another on March 15, just three days before a movement control order (MCO) was implemented nationwide, closing borders, schools and non-essential businesses.
The residents, mostly farmers, who grow oil palms and yam, soon began to see a spike in infections.
This prompted the government to declare an enhanced MCO, placing 3,500 people from the village and Bandar Baharu Datuk Ibrahim Majid nearby under total lockdown.
No one can leave their homes, shops have closed, and access roads have been sealed.
The residents depend on the government for their daily needs, such as rice, sugar, eggs, detergent and even cat food.
"If we run out of food, we have to eat whatever the government gives us. I even have to ask them for cat food. I have two cats... they will eat only Friskies," said Mr Sarlan, who lives with five other family members.
Seven more villages in the Hulu Langat district in Selangor, an hour's drive from the capital, are also under full lockdown from March 30 to April 13, after 71 coronavirus cases were reported at a religious school in Sungai Lui.
Police are using drones to monitor the large area with almost 4,000 residents.
Tanah Larwina, a 1.2ha farmstead retreat in the lockdown zone, posted on Instagram last Tuesday that the residents had received "free rice and other foodstuffs" delivered by the authorities.
"The only thing they don't have now is cigarettes," the post said.
The farmstead's owner Faisol Hussain, 55, said his workers had stopped going out even before the lockdown, once they heard about the cases at the school.
"They were quite scared, especially every time they heard the ambulance in the distance," he said.
Dr Hisham said that the number of infections in Hulu Langat and Simpang Renggam were still rising.
Hulu Langat recorded 314 cases, while Kluang district, which includes Sungei Renggam, had 135.
In Kuala Lumpur, an apartment building near the Masjid India area was placed under similar restrictions on March 31, after 17 cases were detected among its residents.
