KUALA LUMPUR, May 16 — The Ministry of Health recorded 17 new Covid-19 positive cases in Malaysia today, once again charting a lower count compared to 73 new recovery cases.
In his daily press briefings, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah revealed that recovery cases now account for 80.2 per cent or 5,512 cases of total cumulative Covid-19 cases, which now have reached a tally of 6,872 cases in total.
Dr Noor Hisham also announced one new Covid-19-related death today, involving a public health worker in Sabah, with a history of lung cancer and high blood pressure.
The woman was admitted to Likas Women and Children’s Hospital on May 5 after her health deteriorated. She died on May 7.
However, Dr Noor Hisham stated that her death was not directly caused by Covid-19, as she had end-stage lung cancer.
“Basically, she had advanced lung cancer, and had not worked for quite some time. She came in because of symptoms from lung cancer, but since it mimics SARI (severe acute respiratory infection), they took a Covid-19 test, which was coincidentally positive.
“She died because of lung cancer as she was very advanced, on palliative care. But we include it as a Covid-19-related death census as she had a positive swab. Just like the suicide case in Sabah was also included, although it was an incidental finding. We are now in the process of going through each death and determining if those deaths were due to Covid-19, or simply related to it as a result positive,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham also stated that out of the 17 new cases today, six are imported cases.
To date, 13 Covid-19 cases are being treated in intensive care units, with five of them requiring breathing aid.
