Malaysian infected with COVID-19 fully recovered, allowed to go home

A local woman, the 13th Covid-19 patient (with mask), was discharged from the isolation ward at Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital, Alor Setar after full recovery. — Picture courtesy of Health Ministry via The Star/Asia News Network

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): A 40-year local woman previously warded for Covid-19 has fully recovered and was discharged Saturday afternoon (Feb 22).

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement on Sunday (Feb 23) said that the woman was the 13th case who was treated at Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah, Alor Setar and was confirmed to be positive Covid-19 on February 5, 2020.

“In total, 18 confirmed Covid-19 cases have fully recovered and discharged well, with four cases still receiving treatment in hospitals and are in stable conditions,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham also said that as of Sunday, the Health Ministry (MoH) has reported a total of 22 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Malaysia including 20 imported cases, i.e. cases with histories of travel or living overseas, particularly from China.

The remaining two cases were among family members of one of the confirmed imported Covid-19 case, who is a Malaysian.

“Based on the current situation, MoH has proactively strengthened the Covid-19 surveillance system to detect local cases in the community.

“This surveillance system utilises the same principles as the Influenza Surveillance System, i.e. through the detection of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) and influenza-like illness (ILI) cases that meet the set criteria at the level of selected hospitals and health clinics respectively,” he said.

He said that strengthening detection among SARI cases was initiated on Feb 12 and since then, no samples were found to be positive for Covid-19 out of those obtained and tested through the surveillance system.

In addition, strengthening for detection among ILI cases was initiated on Feb 22.- Bernama