KUALA LUMPUR (March 6): The number of positive cases of COVID-19 has shot up to 83, with 28 new confirmed positive cases as of noon today, according to the Ministry of Health's director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

All the new detected cases have been sent for further treatment, and their close contacts are being identified for investigation, Dr Noor said in a statement.

Of the total 83 cases in the country, 65 are Malaysians and 15 are Chinese nationals. The remainder three are from US, Japan and Italy. From this total, 956 close contacts have been identified so far.

Of the close contacts identified, 258 were from the cluster linked to the 26th patient, he said.

"From this cluster, 18 people have been confirmed positive for COVID-19," he said, adding 70 were tested negative but have nevertheless been ordered to stay home for observation for 14 days. The remainder 170, who are also under observation, are still awaiting their laboratory test results.

"The MoH is still carrying out investigations and identifying the close contacts to identify the cause of the infection to prevent it from spreading further," he said.

The D-G also updated that the 24th patient has recovered and has been discharged from Hospital Kuala Lumpur. "All the close contacts from this case have also been successfully tracked and the spread of Covid-19 for this cluster has successfully been stopped," he said.

This recovery brings the total number of patients who have recovered from the infection and discharged from hospital to 23.

Read also:
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/covid19-case-no-26-issues-statement-explain-what-happened
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/five-new-covid19-cases-confirmed-travel-ban-visitors-seven-cities