PETALING JAYA,Jan 14: Deputy Health Minister I Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali’s office has denied news reports by two portals that he had flouted the movement control order by receiving visitors to his office in Putrajaya yesterday.
“The allegations made in the two portals are false,” Noor Azmi’s office said in a statement, referring to Malaysiakini and MalaysiaPost.com.
It went on to explain that Noor Azmi had met a group of people on Jan 12, the day before the MCO came into effect. The photographs uploaded on Facebook were from that meeting, he claimed.
Noor Azmi’s office then called for the two portals to retract their allegations in their reports.
“The false allegations give the people a negative perception of the deputy health minister and the health ministry.”
Yesterday, Malaysiakini ran a report about Noor Azmi courting controversy “following suspicion that he flouted the SOPs”.
According to the portal, Noor Azmi uploaded several photos of him receiving guests on his Facebook page earlier today.
The photos, according to the portal, were uploaded with the caption “The Health Ministry. Parliamentary friends visiting the office of the Deputy Health Minister I” at around 1pm today.
“They were removed from the Facebook page around 9pm,” the report read, although it noted that the post did not specify when the meeting took place.
Putrajaya, along with Kuala Lumpur and Labuan are under a 14-day MCO from today following the recent surge in Covid-19 cases.
Apart from the federal territories, five states were also placed under the MCO, namely Selangor, Penang, Melaka, Johor and Sabah.
According to the SOP, face-to-face meetings in the government and private agencies are banned, while official and non-official ceremonies are also prohibited.
