KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — The Health Ministry today announced that a new Covid-19 patient has been identified in Malaysia, while also noting that the last two of the 22 patients previously warded have fully recovered.
This means that Malaysia had recorded 23 Covid-19 cases up until today, but with only one of these patients still warded.
Director-General of Health Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the two new recoveries were the 16th and 22nd patients that were identified with the Covid-19 infection, adding that they were both allowed to be discharged today following their full recoveries.
The 16th patient is a 67-year-old female Chinese national who received treatment at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur, while the 22nd case was an 83-year-old female US citizen who had received treatment at the Hospital Sungai Buloh.
“Therefore, 22 individuals have fully recovered and been discharged from wards,” he said in a statement today.
As for the latest and remaining Covid-19 case now in Malaysia, Dr Noor Hisham said this patient is a 53-year-old Malaysian woman who had recently travelled to Japan.
“Upon return from Japan on February 23, 2020, the patient started having symptoms of fever the next day and received treatment at a hospital in Kuala Lumpur. The test to detect Covid-19 was taken for this case and was confirmed to be positive on February 27, 2020,” he said of this latest case, which is also the 23rd case recorded locally.
As of today, 1,569 individuals have had their samples taken for tests for the Covid-19 virus, he said.
These 1,569 cases are composed of those who are Patient-under-investigation (PUI), close contact cases, those from humanitarian aid missions and the Dream World cruise ship.
“Out of this figure, 23 cases were confirmed positive for Covid-19, 1,523 are negative and 23 are still awaiting lab results,” he added.
Dr Noor Hisham said that 66 individuals were brought back to Malaysia from Wuhan, China through the second humanitarian aid mission on February 26, with the 66 comprising of 46 Malaysian citizens and 20 non-citizens that are their spouse or children.
Upon their return to Malaysia, the 66 underwent entry screening with clinical samples taken for tests for the Covid-19 virus, but with none found to have symptoms and all testing negative for the virus, he said.
The 66 are all currently being kept at monitoring centres to undergo quarantine for 14 days, he said.
