PETALING JAYA, Sept 4 — The Health Ministry says there is no need for the public to know the areas where Malaysia’s first Zika patient had visited upon her return from Singapore, deeming it unnecessary to sound an alert.

The ministry’s disease control division director, Dr Chong Chee Keong, said the public should not worry of being exposed to the virus as assessments and prevention exercises had been conducted.

"It is not that we are keeping the public in the dark, but it is unnecessary to cause alarm,” he told Sunday Mail.

"After the illness had subsided and the virus was still active in the patient’s blood, she had only visited a few places.

"The ministry has weighed all the risks. According to the date and location of her visits, we concluded that there was no need to reveal the said locations to prevent panic.”

Dr Chong said when tracking the patient’s footsteps before she was admitted to Sungai Buloh Hospital on Tuesday, the ministry had reduced some of the locations to risk-free areas based on the time of her visit.

"As we had gathered from dealing with dengue-carrying Aedes mosquitoes before, the feeding is most intense around dawn and dusk,” he said.

"All visits the patient made during non-peak hours are discounted.”

He said the necessary measures, including source reduction and fogging, had been conducted at all the areas the patient had visited, including at her house in Bandar Botanic, Klang.

"Her house was the first place we visited following confirmation of the virus. We have scoured every nook and cranny of the compound and interior of her house and found no evidence of breeding grounds,” he said.

"The standard anti-Aedes activities like fogging were then conducted within a 400m radius of her house.”

The 58-year old patient is reportedly recovering and is expected to be discharged soon.