KOTA KINABALU, April 13 — A foreigner with the coronavirus disease who committed suicide here was not considered a Covid-19 death, said Sabah Health director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi.
She said the 26-year-old foreigner was included in the state’s Covid-19 numbers solely as one of the 14 new infections.
“New case, not Covid-19 death.
“It’s in the statistics because he has the virus,” she said when contacted by the media.
She was asked to comment on the suicide, believed to be of a foreigner who remains unidentified and whose body was discovered in the jungles of Kampung Pondo on Pulau Gaya on April 6.
Yesterday, health authorities who performed the autopsy on the deceased found him to be positive for Covid-19 and ordered the 12 policemen who handled the body to enter home quarantine.
Kota Kinabalu police chief assistant commissioner Habibi Majinji told reporters the man was believed to have committed suicide for personal reasons and likely did not know he had Covid-19.
Six policemen who were directly involved in handling the body at the scene and six others who came into close contact have so far tested negative for Covid-19 but are awaiting their second test results.
Pulau Gaya sits in front of the city, about a 10- to 20-minute boat ride away. It is home to several water villages with populations of naturalised Malaysians, Filipino refugees, as well as stateless and illegal immigrants. Several high-end resorts are also found on the island’s coast.
Two cases of Covid-19 have been detected there.
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