KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 — A 63-year-old Chinese man, the 10th person infected with the novel coronavirus (nCoV-2019), has recovered and will be discharged today, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this afternoon.

The Chinese national been treated at Hospital Kuala Lumpur’s (HKL) isolation and was given a clean bill of health after being treated for "symptomatic treatment” and having his test results return negative.

"After observation and symptomatic treatment, we deemed he did not need any more antiviral treatment.”

"Two back-to-back tests done on him on February 7 and 8 came back negative for the 2019-nCoV virus. The patient is allowed to leave this evening,” Dr Noor said in a Facebook post.

He thanked the entire HKL medical team as well as staff from the Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur Health departments for working to curb the contagion.

Malaysia has had a total 17 cases of the virus that causes respiratory illnesses at the time of writing. Twelve of the patients were from China and five are Malaysians.

Three have fully recovered, including today’s 63-year-old man.

The first to bounce back was a four-year-old girl from China who was admitted to the Sultanah Maliha Hospital in Langkawi, Kedah on January 29.

She was discharged on February 4.

A 40-year-old man from Wuhan, who was Malaysia’s fourth nCoV case and was hospitalised at the Permai Hospital in Johor Baru on January 24 with pneumonia and high fever, was discharged on February 8.