A police sergeant succumbed to Covid-19 while still undergoing home quarantine.

A report by the South Klang district police headquarters underwent a Covid-19 test on Jan 22 after developing a fever.

The result came back positive for Covid-19 and he then underwent a second test which confirmed the first result.

The police officer was under home quarantine since Jan 22 and was supposed to complete his isolation on Feb 1.

Malaysia previously held all Covid-19 patients in hospitals and touted this as a factor in controlling the spread of the disease and maintain a low fatality rate.

As the number of cases increased, however, Covid-19 patients with milder symptoms were delegated to centralised quarantine facilities, and later ordered to undergo home quarantine instead when the number of cases continued to rise and overloaded the healthcare system.

The nature of the police officer's symptoms was unclear but he died on Jan 27 at 8.29pm.

The South Klang police district headquarters was then alerted of the death by the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital ambulance call centre.

“He was supposed to undergo home quarantine in Klang from Jan 22 to Feb 1 but was pronounced dead at his home on Jan 27,” the district police chief Shamsul Amar Ramli was quoted as saying by The Star.

The cause of death was determined to be due to Covid-19, and the deceased was laid to rest at the Sungai Sireh Muslim cemetery in Klang this evening.

Shamsul Amar said the deceased was assigned to the South Klang police escort unit and leaves behind a wife and five children.

Thus far, a Covid-19 death matching the sergeant’s description has yet to be announced in the Health Ministry’s daily Covid-19 updates.

Malaysiakini had observed a delay of several days between the occurrence of a publicly known death, and when a death matching the deceased’s description is announced by the Health Ministry.

The ministry has a policy of not identifying Covid-19 patients to preserve patient privacy.