The Health Ministry has appealed to the 203 Malaysians who had visited the Sars-infected Pasir Panjang wholesale market in Singapore to report to the nearest hospital or medical centre immediately.

The ministry's deputy director-general Dr Mohd Ismail Merican said their names would be revealed in the print and electronic media soon and they should report to the state health department or the nearest designated hospital.

He added that the ministry was particularly concerned about 30 of the 203 people whose identities and whereabouts are not known.

Requesting them to come forward, Mohd Ismail also appealed to the public who have any knowledge of the 30 to contact the ministry.

In his daily briefing o­n the Sars epidemic today, Mohd Ismail said this was the first time that the ministry is revealing the names of those they are tracing. The list was given by their Singaporean counterparts yesterday.

A total of 279 Singaporeans and Malaysians are o­n the list of identified people who may have come into contact with a Singaporean probable Sars patient working in the Pasir Panjang centre.

Penang's new admission

Meanwhile, o­ne new probable Sars case and o­ne new notification case were reported yesterday.

The latest probable patient is a 30-year-old man from Kuala Lumpur. He was admitted to the Penang general hospital yesterday.

The man is a pilot attached to the Transmile Air Cargo company. Before his hospitalisation, he had flown to Hong Kong and during his return journey to Penang o­n April 22, he has transited at Bangkok and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

"He stayed in the plane during the transit at Bangkok and KLIA but a co-pilot and a flight engineer were accompanying him in all these flights," Mohd Ismail said.

So far, nine people linked to the pilot have been put under quarantine at home.

16 isolated in wards

On the new notification case reported yesterday, Mohd Ismail said the patient is a 63-year-old Malaysian who died at the Ipoh general hospital o­n Tuesday.

Explaining o­n this delayed notification case, he said the patient was initially admitted to a private hospital for a heart problem and fever but was later diagnosed with pneumonia.

"The patient was o­nly transferred to the designated hospital o­n Monday after demonstrating fever and coughing, and isolated in the hospital as a notified patient. He was classified as having died from pneumonia with congestive heart failure," Mohd Ismail said.

On the latest Sars situation, with the releases of four yesterday, 16 people are isolated in designated hospitals nationwide. (See chart)

Of these 16, two are probable cases, eight suspected and six notification. The country has a total of 252 notification cases to date.

According to the World Health Organisation latest figure , 4,288 people are infected with Sars to date worldwide with 251 deaths.