KUALA LUMPUR: There is a provision for individuals under Covid-19 home surveillance order (HSO) to proceed with important affairs.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this has been put into practice since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 (Act 342) gives authority to the Health director-general to evaluate a person's application to be allowed to attend to certain important matters during their observation period.
Among other things, a person under the HSO is allowed to visit family members at hospitals and attend the funeral of a family member, with permission.
"The Health director-general will perform an evaluation risk against the case and (he) will give conditions on how it will proceed," he said during his Covid-19 press briefing in Putrajaya today.
Dr Noor Hisham was responding to a question sent in by a member of the press regarding a statement from Kuantan member of parliament, Fuziah Salleh.
Fuziah had wanted clarification from the ministry on why certain MPs, who were undergoing Covid-19 quarantine were allowed to attend the Dewan Rakyat session recently during certain voting sessions for the 2021 Budget, despite them attending the session while wearing personal protective equipment (PPE).
Fuziah was quoted as saying that such actions by these parliamentarians could give a signal that other people under the home surveillance order could simply leave their homes if they were to wear PPEs.
When elaborating on this matter, Dr Noor Hisham said among other things, persons under surveillance who were allowed to go out for the aforementioned reasons must be accompanied by a health officer.
"This happened during the Sabah state election, as we allowed persons under surveillance to vote while wearing the PPE.
"It is not new and has been implemented since day one. Persons under surveillance have been allowed to apply for visitation or work matters," he said.
On Monday, three MPs, who were undergoing home surveillance order, attended the Dewan Rakyat session for the 2021 Budget committee-level voting session for the Federal Territories Ministry's allocation.
Their presence led to a walkout by opposition lawmakers during the vote process.