KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — The Health Ministry was forced again to debunk allegations of new  coronavirus-positive cases in the country, this time totalling five purportedly at the Klang Hospital.

The ministry explained that a video that has been circulating on the internet showing a masked person dressed in the white protective suit leading a group of people out of a shophouse and into a beige-coloured van parked outside was part of its routine procedures in checking for the spread of the infectious Covid-19 virus that has claimed 1,383 lives worldwide to date.

"Actually, this is the standard procedure (SOP) for an operation to detect close contact cases. Allegations that there are five positive cases in Hospital Klang are false,” it said in a brief tweet tonight, with a 4-second video clip embedded.