PETALING JAYA, Jan 29 — Malaysian actor Zed Zaidi said he is fully aware that the screenshot he tweeted on Monday contained misinformation regarding the coronavirus (2019-nC0V) situation in the country.

After receiving backlash from social media users for spreading fake news, Zed told Malaysiakini that he knows that the screenshot he posted was created using the meme generator breakyourownnews.com.

The image contained a headline that said all countries had banned Chinese tourists except Malaysia.

"Obviously, we know how that thing (the meme generator) can be used to create any kind of news.

"There’s no way I didn’t know it was false,” he was quoted as saying.

The Seniman president went on to clarify that he had only wanted to highlight the picture of him wearing a face mask in his Twitter post.

"What I tried to do was link the (fake) news which had an image of people donning face masks with me wearing one myself.”

Despite the negative response online, Zed has yet to delete the controversial post, which he shared on both his Twitter and Facebook.

In light of the flu outbreak, Malaysia has temporarily barred entry for residents of Wuhan and Hubei province by suspending all available visa programmes facilitating their entry here.

The number of confirmed coronavirus patients in Malaysia rose to seven this morning after three more positive cases were found.