KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — Photographs posted on Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed’s Facebook page were not necessarily from the same day they were taken, an aide to the minister said today.

The aide explained that it was the practice of the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department to upload such photographs days after the event.

"For example, Datuk Mustapa met the Yang diPertuan Agong on January 4, 2021 and not on January 8, and with the health minister on January 7,” the aide said.

The aide was commenting on reports that portrayed the minister’s meetings as being held on the same days as the Facebook entries containing the images.

Earlier today, Mustapa’s office confirmed that the minister tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival at Kota Baru, Kelantan, yesterday.

Mustapa is the second Cabinet member to have contracted Covid-19.

In October, Islamic Affairs Minister Datuk Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri tested positive Covid-19, which required several other ministers including the prime minister to be quarantined as they had been at a special Cabinet meeting together.