EXEMPTING ministers from a mandatory 10-day quarantine may risk bringing in new variants of the Covid-19 virus into the country, said former prime minister Najib Razak.

The Pekan MP was commenting on Putrajaya’s latest gazetted order that ministers returning from abroad only need undergo observation for three days.

Najib questioned the exemption, noting that the average incubation period before Covid-19 infections were detectable was around five to six days.

It is also general medical knowledge now that the incubation period can be up to 14 days.

“There is a risk if those who are infected are wrongly released early, leading to them infecting more people under the mistaken assumption that they are free of Covid-19,” Najib said in a Facebook post today.

“It is even more dangerous if those wrongly released carry the infection from abroad, as there are possibilities for it to be new Covid-19 mutations that are more aggressive, such as the UK variant and the South Africa variant.”

As examples, he cited three cases of lawmakers who tested positive after a few days up to a week after returning from the Sabah elections last September. They were the Kg Tunku, Ayer Limau and Maharani assemblymen.

Najib said at a time when the number of active cases has reached 51,000 and the public healthcare system is stretched to breaking point, it was unsure if the system could manage should a highly contagious virus strain enter the country from abroad.

The country reported 3,100 new cases yesterday, with fresh cases bringing the overall caseload to 245,552 while active cases stand at 51,977. 

Furious Malaysians are demanding that Health Minister Dr Adham Baba, who announced the exemption gazetted as an amendment to the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act, resign over the double standards.

Anyone else entering the country is required to undergo 10 days of mandatory quarantine. – February 9, 2021.