MINISTERS returning from overseas are required to comply with a quarantine order, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

“At this juncture they must undergo quarantine because even though they were called home and even though they were called to return, it is important to be careful and alert in this matter,” he said in a press conference today.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob yesterday ordered all ministers abroad to return home at once.

“I have been deluged with questions about our ministers. So, if they are on leave and planning to go on holiday, I want them to cancel that plan.

“If they are currently abroad, return immediately!” he told a press conference after visiting flood evacuees at SK Bukit Piatu in Bentong yesterday.

Khairy said the health authority is also checking to see whether Hulu Langat MP Hasanuddin Mohd Yunus had obeyed the quarantine order when he came home from overseas.

“He applied for a quarantine exemption for a trip on December 8-12. He went to an OIC conference in Istanbul, Turkey, together with three other elected representatives,” he said.

“That exemption was approved because of the test and release protocol we have for official travel.”

He said the exemption was subsequently overridden and Hasanuddin was ordered by email on December 20 to quarantine at home for seven days when he returned, which he did on December 22.

“That was the last correspondence we had with him,” he said.

The ministry is looking into Hasanuddin’s travel history to check if he had travelled to Pakistan and Iran from Turkey.  

However, Khairy said Hasanuddin would only be fined RM1,000 if he had breached the home surveillance order.

The Amanah lawmaker was seen visiting his constituents yesterday. – December 25, 2021.