Health minister’s health advice debunked, and 9 news from yesterday

KINI ROUNDUP | Here are key headlines you may have missed yesterday, in brief.

1. Surgeon Dr Amalina Bakri and the World Health Organisation debunked Health Minister Dr Adham Baba’s advice that drinking warm water can prevent Covid-19.

2. The Malaysian Armed Forces will help police to enforce the movement control order beginning tomorrow, but PKR president Anwar Ibrahim said the move is absurd, while a veterans’ group said it is premature.

3. Health director-general urged patients to be truthful about their medical history after scores of healthcare workers were infected with Covid-19. One healthcare worker has been warded in an intensive care unit.

4. A group has organised subsidised childcare for the Health Ministry’s frontliners and are appealing for donations.

5. Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah urged Malaysians to stay home for the duration of the order, after going out on inspection and finding compliance to be lacking.

6. Malaysia has recorded 130 new Covid-19 infections. It has the fourth highest number of cases in Asia, overtaking Japan. One patient linked to the tabligh gathering in Sri Petaling has died in Tawau, and no one was allowed to come near during his burial.

7. Police are cracking down on participants and close contacts of the tabligh cluster who still refuse to undergo testing, with arrests being made in Labuan, Kedah and Penang.

8. Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa has urged undocumented migrants and Rohingya refugees who participated in the tabligh gathering to come forward for testing, while UN’s refugee agency and community leaders stepped up efforts to get them to comply.

9. Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin has sacked party secretary-general Marzuki Yahya, but chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the sacking is invalid because he was not consulted.

10. MPs aligned with Pakatan Harapan claim their allocations for servicing their constituencies have been frozen.