KUALA LUMPUR, July 26 — Up to eight MPs have been forced to sit out the first day of the Special Parliamentary Sitting today, two for testing positive and the rest for being close contacts.

This was revealed by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun during his opening address at today’s sitting, saying these were the results obtained during last week’s screening.

"Just to inform the House that a total of 12 Parliament staff have been found positive for Covid-19 and 58 more have been forced to undergo quarantine for being close contacts.

"A total of two MPs have also been found positive and around five or six more MPs have also been quarantined for being close contacts,” he said.

As such, Azhar, also known as Art Harun, said all lawmakers were strongly advised to use two face masks to curb the spread of the virus.

"It’s not compulsory to use double face masks, but wearing at least one face mask is compulsory,” he said.

The Speaker had earlier informed all party leaders to switch out the MPs inside the House every hour as part of mitigation measures against Covid-19.

He added that it was to limit the number of lawmakers allowed to be within the Dewan Rakyat.

This as reports of up to 35 MPs testing positive for Covid-19 surfaced over the weekend with results obtained from compulsory screening for this special sitting.

Among the positive MPs who have been named are Bagan Datuk MP and Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Nibong Tebal MP Datuk Mansor Othman who is also deputy higher education minister.