Minister of International Trade and Industry Mohamed Azmin Ali became the most trending topic on Twitter this evening as netizens took a dig at him after a Selangor health official revealed that factories accounted for a majority of the Covid-19 clusters in the state last month.
At 6.30pm, the Azmin Ali was at the top of the trending list on Twitter with 2,670 tweets.
Selangor health director Dr Sha’ari Ngadiman said in a press conference today that 96 out of the 180 clusters reported between July 1 and July 31 were linked to factories.
However, he said the infections did not stem from within factory premises but outside, possibly from workers’ hostels or the community.
While the Health Ministry tweeted the info on the factory clusters along with other salient points from the press conference, that particular tweet was later deleted.
However, some netizens who had taken a screenshot, questioned Azmin and the ministry on why the tweet was deleted.
Sharing a screenshot of the now deleted tweet, Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil said “Condolence to the tweet that spoke the truth.”
Another Twitter user @shaunbadong asked if it was the ministry or Azmin who was lying, and answered, “Azmin Ali, duh”.
Some social media users called for Azmin’s resignation.
“When is Azmin Ali going to resign?” asked a user under the handle @jeyjeyjahh.
On July 26, Azmin denied that the bulk of Covid-19 infections came from factories, saying the decision to let the manufacturing sector operate was made by the National Security Council (NSC).
Speaking in the Dewan Rakyat, the Gombak MP held up papers showing graphs and news reports quoting Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, who said the majority of infections have been sporadic cases and not from the manufacturing sector.
“All decisions made are collectively in the NSC. Before a decision is made by the NSC, all ministries would present a list of positives and negatives (businesses or industries).
“Finally, after hearing all the views from the health or economic sector, the NSC would determine which is positive and which is negative,” Azmin said. – TMI