Malaysia Registers First Sporadic COVID-19 Case - Health Ministry

Muhammad Irfan Published March 12, 2020 | 08:03 PM

Malaysia has registered its first sporadic case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), with the patient having no history of traveling to any affected countries or coming into contact with an infected person, the Health Ministry said

BANGKOK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th March, 2020) Malaysia has registered its first sporadic case of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), with the patient having no history of traveling to any affected countries or coming into contact with an infected person, the Health Ministry said.

Malaysia has 149 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Twenty-six of the patients have already recovered.

"The Health Ministry is conducting COVID-19 surveillance to detect sporadic and local cases in Malaysia through patients with ILI [ nfluenza-like-illness] and SARI [severe acute respiratory infection] with no history of traveling to affected countries of contacts with confirmed Covid-19 cases.

As of March 1, a total of 600 samples were tested and one sample was found to be positive for Covid-19," health director general Noor Hisham Abdullah said late on Wednesday, as quoted by The Star newspaper.

He added that the ministry was seeking to identify the source of the infection.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared the spread of the coronavirus infection a pandemic. The number of infected people worldwide has surpassed 127,000, with over 4,700 deaths.