The Ministry of Health has confirmed its first sporadic case of Coronavirus (COVID-19) today (12/3/20). This means that this is the first time the virus was found in an isolated and random manner in Malaysia.
For those who are still wondering what does a sporadic case means, it actually means that the infected person did not travel to places that have confirmed cases or be in contact with any infected patients.
The Sporadic Case
According to the New Strait Times, health director-general Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah stated that this case was discovered after the Health Ministry conducted an observation of over 600 samples from patients suffered from influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) where they obtained 138 samples with SARI and 462 samples with ILI.
The sporadic case was confirmed yesterday that one of the samples was infected with COVID-19.
Dr. Noor too mentioned to NST that the investigation is ongoing to identify the cause of this sporadic infection.
He then further explained to let them investigate the sporadic case first before making the decision of upgrading Malaysia's nationwide response mechanism to "Heightened Risk" for the COVID-19 outbreak when he was asked by the reporters of NST.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Malaysia
As updated yesterday, there are 149 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Malaysia. Among these 149 cases, 22 were detected among persons under investigation (PUI), 124 cases from close contacts, 2 were part of humanitarian aid missions while the remaining one was a patient with SARI.
Advises from Dr. Noor
“The ministry is identifying close contacts of these cases through contact tracing. This process will continue until the cause of the infection is identified,” added Dr. Noor Hisham. Meanwhile, he urged people who attended the four-day "tabligh" (religious event) gathering that was held from Feb 27 to March 1 at the Masjid Seri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur who had shown symptoms of COVID-19 to get tested as a Brunei Man, one of the attendees, was said to have been in contact with the virus after the event.
He then disclosed that the International Health Regulations Focal Point in Malaysia was told by its counterpart in Brunei.
The ministry too suggested postponing all mass gatherings at the time being.
Latest Updates On Confirmed COVID-19 Cases In Malaysia
26 infected patients out of 149 confirmed cases had recovered and were discharged from the hospital. 66 Malaysians and their family members who were brought back from Wuhan on Malaysia's humanitarian aid mission were granted permission to return home after they underwent a quarantine period at the Higher Education Leadership Academy in Bandar Enstek, Nilai.
All of them were tested negative for the virus.
