OFFICIALS have rubbished claims made on social media that a deadly coronavirus originating from China has been detected in Malacca, Negri Sembilan and Pahang.

Malacca Health and Anti-Drug Committee chairman Low Chee Leong said a suspected case involving a 7-year-old Chinese national has been proven negative.

He said tests conducted by Kuala Lumpur Hospital three days ago found that the boy does not have the virus.

“We received a report on the boy seeking treatment for fever at a private clinic in Ayer Keroh on January 24. The clinic wanted to refer the case to Malacca Hospital, but the boy’s family… instead took him to Kuala Lumpur Hospital, where he tested negative,” he told Bernama.

Negri Sembilan health deputy director Dr Mohd Faid Rashid quashed claims that a suspected patient was admitted to Tuanku Ja’afar Hospital yesterday.

“No such case has been reported.”

Pahang health director Dr Bahari Muda Awang Ngah, meanwhile, said there has not been any report received on patients suspected of having contracted the virus being admitted to hospitals in the state.

Terengganu, too, has dismissed allegations that the coronavirus has landed in the state.

State health director Dr Nur Azimi Yunus said it is not true that five people with the virus were admitted to a hospital in Kuala Terengganu.

The disease, first detected at a market selling wild animals for food in Wuhan, has killed 80 people in China and infected thousands more across the country.

Malaysia is among several nations that have confirmed cases of the virus, reporting four patients, all from China. – Bernama, January 27, 2020.