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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin will undergo a 14-day home quarantine after a minister who attended a meeting he presided over tested positive for COVID-19.
In a statement on Monday (October 5), Muhyddin said that he had previously chaired a special meeting of the National Security Council on Saturday, which was also attended by the Prime Minister’s Department Minister Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri.
Since then, the minister has tested positive for COVID-19 and is seeking treatment at a hospital in Seremban, he added.
Muhyddin said he would self-quarantine at his residence for 14 days according to the advice of the Health Ministry.
“However, this will not affect government affairs. I will continue to work from home and have video calls for meetings that I have to preside over,” he said.
The prime minister added that the Health Ministry has tested all attendees and the secretariat for Saturday’s meeting for COVID-19.
He also said that as a precautionary measure, he has had a swab test every two weeks since April and all the results were negative.
Earlier, Dr. Zulkifli, who is in charge of religious affairs, confirmed in a Facebook post that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and was in good condition.
“I urge members of the public present at the events that I also attended from September 24 to October 4 to immediately undergo COVID-19 screening at any health clinic,” he said.
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin chaired a special meeting on COVID-19 on October 3, 2020, which was attended by several ministers and officials. (Photo: Facebook / Muhyiddin Yassin)
The minister did not experience any symptoms of COVID-19 at the time of Saturday’s meeting, according to a statement released by the director general of the Health Ministry, Noor Hisham Abdullah.
“… (he) has now been admitted to the hospital for isolation, observation and treatment in accordance with current protocols for positive COVID-19 cases,” said Dr. Noor Hisham.
The CEO added that all close contacts of this person at the meeting have been issued a house surveillance order for 14 days from the day of contact.
READ: Malaysia will not reimpose the COVID-19 curbs for now despite the increase
The rest of the attendees who were not close contacts of the person had to undergo a personal health check at home every day for 14 days, he said.
All attendees have undergone health screenings on Monday and samples have been taken for COVID-19 testing.
Separately, contact tracing was ongoing, and smears and screenings were part of the action, said Dr. Noor Hisham.
Saturday’s meeting came after an increase in the number of cases in the country.
The COVID-19 pandemic appeared to be under control in Malaysia between June and August, until cases began to rise again in September.
Most of the cases were detected in Sabah and the government said the outbreak was due to undocumented immigrants.
On Monday, Malaysia reported one more day of record cases. The 432 new cases brought the total so far to 12,813.
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