KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 24 (Bernama) — As of 23 February 2020, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has reported a total of 22 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Malaysia. Out of these, 20 cases were imported, i.e. cases with histories of travel or living overseas, particularly from China. The remaining two (2) cases were amongst 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. Strengthening detection amongst SARI cases was initiated on 12 February 2020. Since then, no samples have been found to be positive for COVID-19 out of those obtained and tested through the surveillance system. In addition, strengthening for detection amongst ILI cases was initiated on 22 February 2020.