KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — The cost of treatment for Covid-19 patients at private healthcare facilities taken over by the government has not been formalised as an Emergency Ordinance (EO), Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said today.

However, he said the National Security Council (NSC) has decided that employers must be responsible for all treatment costs for their foreign workers.

Although he was asked about all Covid-19 patients in general, the senior defence minister did not address locals before ending his press conference.

Ismail Sabri only said that the matter must be made into an EO, but the government has not yet done so because the Emergency has just been proclaimed.

"His Majesty (the Yang di-Pertuan Agong) must first agree and assent before we can enforce the EOs,” he said.

Earlier in his press briefing, he justified the Emergency as necessary to give the government the authority to, among others, order private healthcare providers to allow their facilities and resources to be used for the country’s Covid-19 treatment efforts.

Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhiddin Yassin announced on Tuesday a Proclamation of Emergency until August 1, which he said was needed to give his government resources needed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and concurrent floods in several states.

Malaysia is facing a third wave of Covid-19 infections that has pushed the country’s cases to 147,885 as of today, compared to just 10,000 between March and October last year.

The Health Minister today reported 3,377 more Covid-19 cases alongside 15 deaths nationwide for the past 24 hours.