Hamzah Zainudin has become Malaysia’s third minister to contract the coronavirus in less than a week.
The Home Affairs Ministry revealed his test result in a statement today, saying that the 63-year-old has begun his quarantine. It also called on those who had come into contact with Hamzah from Jan. 8 to Monday to get tested.
“YB Dato ‘Seri Hamzah Zainudin thanks all those who have prayed for his recovery and apologizes for all the difficulties that arose in this development,” the statement said.
Read: COVID-19 swirls among Malaysian cabinet ministers again as two go into quarantine
News of Hamzah’s coronavirus infection comes days after his colleagues, Rina Harun, who is the Minister for Women, Family and Community Development, as well as Mustapa Mohamad, who is the Minister for Economic Affairs, tested positive for COVID-19. Close contacts Mohd Redzuan Yusof, who is the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, and Saifuddin Abdullah, who is the Communications and Multimedia Minister, are also being isolated.
All of them are members of the Bersatu political party who had attended a large meeting last week where ministers wore masks and were socially distanced, according to Redzuan.
Malaysia has recorded more than 138,000 COVID-19 infections and 551 deaths since the outbreak began. A total of 2,232 cases were reported yesterday.
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