POLITICIANS who recently returned from Sabah and tested positive for Covid-19 make up only a fraction of cases recorded over the past few days, said Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob. 

Ismail Sabri, in urging the public to remain calm in a press conference today, said the number of positive cases among those returning from Sabah make up fewer than 1% of total people screened. 

“Almost 13,000 who returned from Sabah were screened and, of this, only little more than 130 tested positive. This is just 1% of the total number. 

“Many started panicking as if half the returnees had tested positive. If it were half, then that would be around 7,000 people. 

“This is only 132, and this figure is a mix of all (active cases)… I’m not going to deny it; some are politicians who went to campaign for the Sabah election, but the number also includes visitors who went for holiday, official matters or business purposes.

“So, the 1% is not made up entirely of politicians but is a mixed (crowd),” the minister said. 

Malaysians have recently taken to social media to blame politicians for the spike in cases as the country continued to report an increase in Covid cases, largely in and from Sabah, which held its state elections last week. 

Social media users used the hashtags #KlusterMenteri (Ministers’ Cluster) and #PoliticiansPuncaVirus (Politicians Cause of Virus) to express their frustrations online.

In the past two days, Malaysia reported more than 500 new positive Covid-29 cases, with a record-breaking 287 infections yesterday. – October 3, 2020.