By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, July 16: Malaysia recorded three new positive cases of Covid-19 today including a case from Sarawak which involved a foreigner.
Health director general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said one case was imported while the remaining two cases were local transmissions.
He said the local transmission cases involved foreigners while the imported case involved a Malaysian.
“The import case involved a Malaysian from overseas who returned from Nigeria.
“He is an engineer and works in Nigeria.
“As for the local transmission cases, one involved a Vietnamese who was detected at the Immigration Detention Centre in Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur following a swab test.
“There is also another case which involved a foreigner in Sarawak,” he said during the national Covid-19 updates at the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) headquarters at Putrajaya today.
With the additional three Covid-19 cases, Dr Noor Hisham said the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia has increased to 8,737 cases
He added there were no deaths recorded while the death toll for Covid-19 in Malaysia stood at 122 persons.
Dr Noor Hisham said there were also 77 active cases in Malaysia with three patients being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while one was on ventilator.
He added 12 patients recovered and discharged from the hospitals today adding to the number of recoveries to 8,538 cases.
On another note, Dr Noor Hisham said MoH is strengthening its clinical surveillance for Covid-19 in the community.
He disclosed that as at July 16, approximately 129 Covid-19 cases were detected from MoH’s clinical surveillance activities.
He said MoH has screened Covid-19 for those with influenza like illness, severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) and pre-operation patients in the hospitals.
On screening and swab test for Covid-19, Dr Noor Hisham said the sensitivity of the rapid test kit (RTK) antigen is 90 per cent.
He asserted that there is no swab test for Covid-19 which can provide 100 per cent test results.
Dr Noor Hisham explained that returnees who initially tested negative or false negative for Covid-19 using RTK antigen and subsequently tested positive using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test were due to the incubation period and the virus which has remained low in the bodies of returnees.
He clarified that it has nothing to do with the reliability of the RTK antigen and PCR as both tests are similar.
Nonetheless, Dr Noor Hisham said returnees from overseas are required to undergo quarantine or self-quarantine at home.
He pointed out that if returnees from overseas exhibit Covid-19 symptoms, they need to contact the nearest hospital for medical treatment.
In the meantime, Dr Noor Hisham reminded the public not to be complacent although the Covid-19 cases in recent days have remained low.
He said MoH will continue to monitor the daily Covid-19 cases and update the public regularly. —DayakDaily
