Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today started his daily press conference on Covid-19 by assuring the public of his health condition.

"For your information, I am now under a 14-day quarantine period, and Alhamdulillah, I am feeling healthy," he said.

Noor Hisham has been the face of Malaysia's battle against the pandemic since its beginning, leading the Health Ministry in inter-agency operations to bring down Covid-19 infection rate in the country.

He, however, was forced to go into quarantine starting yesterday after de facto religious affairs minister Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri was tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Noor Hisham was among the participants of a National Security Meeting held on Saturday to discuss the Covid-19 situation in the country at which Zulkifli was present. 

Others present included Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, senior ministers and also Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador. All of them are under a similar quarantine.

It is believed that Noor Hisham touched on his health to reassure Health Ministry frontliners and the public that he is still fit to lead them in fighting the pandemic which has taken a turn for the worse in recent days.

Many members of the public, especially netizens, had expressed concern for Noor Hisham's health after news broke out that he was among those who had attended the meeting.

During his press conference today, done via Facebook Live, there were instances when Noor Hisham sounded short of breath.

Asked later if he was okay, Noor Hisham assured that there was nothing about his health to worry about.

"It's the mask," he said in a text message.

As of noon today, the Health Ministry recorded 691 new Covid-19 positive cases, the highest ever since the country was hit by the virus in January.

Keep up with the latest information on the outbreak in the country with Malaysiakini's free Covid-19 tracker.

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