PUTRAJAYA, Feb 8 — The government has identified another coronavirus patient (nCoV) raising the number of infected to 16 — four Malaysians and 12 Chinese nationals.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail told a press conference today that the 67-year-old woman is currently being treated at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital.

“We have been informed by the National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre that there is another positive case of the nCoV infection today. She is a 67-year-old Chinese national tourist who is a family friend of the 14th case that was detected on February 6.

“Seeing that she is a close contact to the 14th case, she has been instructed not to go anywhere and was detected to have the virus on February 7,” said Dr Wan Azizah.

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Out of the 12 Chinese nationals, three of them have gone through the first resampling and the results have shown negative. However, they will only be discharged from Sungai Buloh Hospital if the second resampling also shows negative.

So far, out of the 16 infected cases in Malaysia, only the four-year-old girl (the sixth case) who was treated at the Langkawi Hospital was discharged and found to be fully cured on February 4.

Dr Wan Azizah also said that one of the patients (the fourth case) was treated with antiretroviral as the 40-year-old showed symptoms of pneumonia when he was admitted.

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“He was found to have pneumonia and we treated him using antiretroviral that is also used for HIV patients. We found that he has shown a good response to the treatment. We have taken two clinical resampling and the results showed negative.

“He will have to undergo a third resampling and if the result is negative, he will be discharged (from Hospital Permai in Johor),” she said.

When asked whether or not Putrajaya plans on raising Malaysia’s nCoV alert level like Singapore, Dr Wan Azizah said the matter will be discussed soon.

However, she also pointed out that unlike Singapore, there is no Malaysian-to-Malaysian nCoV transmission yet and those who were infected either came home from Wuhan during the humanitarian mission or were exposed to the virus while they were out of the country.

She added that Singapore’s reaction was due to the sporadic cases being transmitted in the country.

The government will also discuss the possibility of a Singapore lockdown but she noted that there are many Malaysians who are working there.

Dr Wan Azizah also acknowledged that many local businesses, especially the hospitality industry encompassing hotels and homestays have been adversely affected by the outbreak.

“They (businesses) have not raised any official complaints but our hotel and tourism industry has been badly affected — especially the SMEs and homestays. The transport minister said travel from China has dropped from 230,000 down to 41,000,” said Wan Azizah.

Earlier, it was also reported that Malaysia’s durian export industry has suffered by up to 50 per cent with a drop in imports from China.