Both are currently receiving treatment at the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital and is reported in stable condition

by HARIZAH KAMEL/ pic by RAZAK GHAZALI

THE Ministry of Health (MoH) has announced two new cases of novel coronavirus (as at press time) reported to the National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) yesterday.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (picture) confirmed in a statement that the two new cases would now make the cumulative number of coronavirus cases reported at 12, with nine Chinese nationals and three Malaysians.

“The two new cases were detected among Malaysians who were deported home from Wuhan, China, through the Humanitarian Aid Mission on Feb 4, 2020. Both are currently receiving treatment at the Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital in Seremban, Negri Sembilan, and is in stable condition,” Dr Dzulkefly said.

For now, MoH has declared another five cases of coronavirus patient under investigation (PUI), five cases of close contact and two cases among Malaysians brought home by the Humanitarian Aid Mission.

Accordingly, from Jan 10 to 10am yesterday, the cumulative number of PUI cases is 257 — made up of 161 Malaysians, 91 Chinese and one each from Australia, Republic of Korea, Jordan, Brazil and Thailand.

Five cases labelled positive, while 235 were negative and 17 are still pending laboratory results.

Meanwhile, a total of 25 new close contacts to the positive cases were reported until yesterday at 10am, making the cumulative number of close contact case to the coronavirus at 61 — of which 56 are negative.

Following the Humanitarian Aid Mission, a total of 107 individuals comprising 88 Malaysian citizens and 19 non-citizen family members were brought home.

The mission had the involvement of 26 individuals: Six from the medical and health forces, one from Agensi Pengurusan Bencana Negara (Nadma) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs respectively, 12 crew members and six officials from the Malaysian Embassy in China.

All individuals involved with the mission underwent health screening and had clinical samples taken for testing.

It was from this entry screening where the two Malaysian nationals who were repatriated were positively identified as having coronavirus symptoms and the remaining 131 were negative. They are currently being monitored for 14 days.

Initially, the lab’s ability to conduct coronavirus detection and validation tests was limited to the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) and the Sungai Buloh National Public Health Laboratory (MKAK).

There are now 12 hospital laboratories and four public health laboratories nationwide that have been trained by the IMR recently using protocols outlined by the World Health Organisation.

“This capacity will be further extended to a network of private laboratories who have indicated their willingness to participate and a related training session will be held by the MKAK on Feb 6,” Dr Dzulkefly said.