28 new cases detected

PETALING JAYA: The largest single-day jump of 28 new Covid-19 cases has been recorded since the outbreak reached the country.With the number, the total now stands at 83 cases, says the Health Ministry. Of the 83 patients, 23 have recovered and been discharged.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said among the new patients were patients-under-investigation (PUI), close contacts and those who were involved in humanitarian aid missions to combat the effects of the disease.

The patients comprise 65 Malaysians, 15 Chinese nationals, an American, a Japanese and an Italian, he said.

“The ministry has identified 956 people who came in close contact with the patients and collected test samples from them to detect the virus, ” he said in a statement yesterday.

Of that number, 258 came in close contact with Patient 26, with 18 of them testing positive.

Patient 26 is UDA Holdings Bhd chairman Datuk Hisham Hamdan, who issued a statement yesterday saying that the second wave of Covid-19 cases in the country were linked to him but did not originate from him.

Prepared: A hospital staff member in Bandar Sunway taking the temperature of a visitor.

Dr Noor Hisham said 70 others tested negative but will be under quarantine for 14 days.

“We are waiting for the test results of the other 170 people and they have also been put under home quarantine and observation, ” he said.

The ministry, he added, will continue with contact tracing to identify how Patient 26 was infected and prevent the illness from spreading further.

He said the ministry had also conducted surveillance to trace local and sporadic cases of influenza-like illnesses (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) as these patients had not travelled to affected countries or had any contact of any positive Covid-19 cases.

“So far, there have been no sporadic Covid-19 cases detected through this surveillance, ” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham noted that the Covid-19 situation in Malaysia is at the early containment level.“We advise the public to cooperate with the ministry’s investigations in tracing anyone who came in close contact with patients. Those identified will be contacted to help with further checks, ” he said.