The rule is contained in a new ministerial order which will be in force from today until Aug 1, requiring ministers to only undergo observation for three days or undergo surveillance until they can be discharged without danger to the public.

The hashtag #AdhamBabaLetakJawatan has been trending on Twitter this morning gathering nearly 4,000 posts, with Malaysians hitting out at the decision.

Most were frustrated and disappointed over the ruling, saying it reeked of double standards from the government.

“Malaysians have had enough of you. Complete disaster under your leadership,” said one user named @DanielKiob.

Another user, @stuartdanker, said: “I seldom post about politics, but we shouldn’t accommodate incompetency.”

Meanwhile, @z_aimi spoke out more pessimistically, saying: “What do you all get for these hashtags anyway. All they gain is publicity but never do we get a resignation.”

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang and former prime minister Najib Razak also criticised the decision.

Lim urged Muhyiddin Yassin to direct Adham to retract the decision, telling the prime minister to uphold his own pledge of no double standards in SOPs between government leaders and ordinary citizens.

In a statement, he said Muhyiddin had made the pledge in a national address in October last year, and he should follow through with his words.

“In one of his telecasts to the nation, Muhyiddin said, ‘If anyone breaks the law, compounds and other punishments will be imposed, regardless of one’s rank or position. I’m sorry if Abah starts using the rotan’.

“Is he going to start using the ‘rotan’ against his own health minister? Muhyiddin should also be mindful of the constitutional guarantee of equality before the law for all Malaysians as entrenched in Article 8 of the Constitution.”

Meanwhile, Najib said the decision should not have been made as Covid-19 did not distinguish between rank or position.

“The average incubation period of Covid-19 is between five and six days. There’s a danger of those infected being wrongly released too early, then infecting even more people.

“This is proven by the initial three-day self-quarantine imposed by the health ministry on those returning from the Sabah state polls last year,” he said in a Facebook post.