Hisham: I didn’t contract virus in Shanghai

PETALING JAYA: UDA Holdings Bhd chairman Datuk Hisham Hamdan (pic) has acknowledged that the second wave of Covid-19 cases in the country have been linked to him but denied that he had contracted the virus from Shanghai trip.

“The second wave of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia are linked to me, that I think is clear. But being linked to me and having originated from me are two different things.

“The Health Ministry is still working diligently and must be applauded for continuing to search for Patient Zero, ” he said in a statement issued from Sungai Buloh Hospital yesterday.

Hisham, 52, said he began exhibiting symptoms of a cough and fever on Feb 27 and sought medical treatment at Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC) outpatient centre, suspecting that he had dengue. While at the hospital, Hisham said he also requested to be tested for Covid-19. After the test, Hisham said he returned home and was told on Feb 28 that he had tested positive for Covid-19.

“I was then asked to proceed to Sungai Buloh Hospital on Feb 29 to be isolated and treated. It was there that my positive results were confirmed, ” he said.

Hisham said before falling ill, he had attended meetings and a ministry function but not political functions.

He said it was not possible for him to have contracted the virus during his Shanghai trip as he was in the city from Jan 13-17 before it recorded any confirmed cases.

“Up to that point, the only confirmed cases in China were from the city of Wuhan, which I never visited. There was no suspicion, at that time, for any concern with regard to visiting Shanghai. Shanghai’s first recorded case was on Jan 20, ” he said, adding that Malaysia only issued an advisory to avoid travel to China on Jan 25.

“The earliest close contact patients linked to me are from a meeting on Feb 21, five weeks after I returned. Unless new medical research tells us otherwise, it is important to keep the facts, as we know them now, clear – my visit to Shanghai is not linked to my positive confirmation, ” he said.

He noted that two individuals had caught the virus from him – his driver and a paramedic from SJMC who attended to him. His family members had so far tested negative, he added.