IPOH, April 13 — A viral message claiming that the Ministry of Health (MOH) has directed individuals who went to the Ipoh wholesale market recently to go for Covid-19 screening is fake news, said Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu on his Twitter.

He uploaded the message, which went viral through WhatsApp,  on his Twitter and marked it as "fake”.

The viral message stated that anyone who went to wholesale market since last Thursday should go to the nearest hospital or health clinic for health screening to ensure they are not infected by Covid-19.

In another development, Perak Health Director Dr Ding Lay Ming denied the death of an Indonesian man in Kampung Aman, Sitiawan yesterday was due to Covid-19.

She said test conducted on the 42-year-old man at the Raja Permaisuri Bainun Hospital (HRPB) here at 9.47pm yesterday found that he was not infected by Covid-19.

She said the man had fever, loss of appetite and mobility since last Friday and a private doctor who treated him suspected he had brain inflammation or meningitis.

"The man’s health deteriorated and he was found not breathing at 3am and was pronounced dead at 6.33am the same day at Seri Manjung Hospital,” she said in a statement here yesterday.

Meanwhile, Dr Ding, in a statement today said the Kinta District Health Office (PKD) had checked on the viral message claiming that the Ministry of Health (MOH) had directed individuals who went to the Ipoh wholesale market recently to go for Covid-19 screening.

She said it was found that no such instruction had been issued and that there had been no Covid-19 case that was associated or linked to customers at the wholesale market.

Therefore, she advised the public to be more alert and to only obtain information on Covivd-19 from the Health Ministry. — Bernama