M'sia's been proactive beyond WHO demands, says Health Minister

CORONAVIRUS | Malaysia is doing more than what’s recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in preventing the novel coronavirus outbreak from spreading, said Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad today.

“We are on top of this. I want to emphasise that we have actually taken a few steps beyond what WHO advises," said Dzulkefly (above, centre) at a press conference in Putrajaya today.

"This includes active surveillance and sharing of information. We have partnered with Asean countries on a situation analysis for prevention and responses.

He said that WHO asked for throat swabs to be done on those who exhibit symptoms but Malaysia has taken a step further than that by carrying out throat swabs on all tourists from China or with a history of travel to China, whether they are symptomatic or not. 

"We also do contact tracing," he added.

Contact tracing is the process of identification of persons who may have come into contact with an infected person.

The Health Ministry reported today there were no new cases of coronavirus infections in Malaysia.

The number of those categorised as Patient Under Investigation (PUI) stands at 127, of which 68 are Malaysians, 56 China nationals and one each from Jordan, Brazil, and Thailand.

Three of those infected were from the PUI group while the remaining five contracted the virus after coming into contact with others who were already infected.

Apart from this, there are a total of 107 cases that tested negative for the virus while a further 17 still have pending test results.

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