MALAYSIA will not follow Singapore in increasing its alert level following the coronavirus outbreak, because the situation here is under control, said Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

“We will have talks with Singapore soon. It is different there. We are concerned about sporadic cases. At the moment, most cases here are Chinese nationals,” Dr Wan Azizah said.

“We do not want cases of Malaysian to Malaysian, who have never been to China or have any contact with anyone there. That is what we are looking out for, the sporadic cases.”

Wan Azizah added the World Health Organisation (WHO) has so far not advised Malaysia to bar all Chinese nationals from entry.

“We do not want to create panic. It is still under control here. We have to be balanced, we have to care for our economy and we have to also be aware of the people coming in,” she said.

The Straits Times reported yesterday that Singapore had moved up its response to the coronavirus outbreak to ‘Code Orange’ due to “heightened risk” after four cases were reported where the victims have no known links to China or people already infected, which meant the disease may be spreading in the community.

It is only the second time Singapore had activated Code Orange.

The first was for swine flu (H1N1) in 2009. The threat response system was set up after the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak in 2003.

Under the Disease Outbreak Response System Condition or Dorscon, Orange means the outbreak is deemed to have moderate to high public health impact.

Malaysia has so far recorded 16 cases of the coronavirus infection with 12 of those being Chinese nationals and the remaining four Malaysians.

All are reported to be in a stable condition and are being treated in isolation wards at various hospitals nationwide.

The outbreak originated from Wuhan, China, six weeks ago.

China has so far reported a death toll of more than 720, with 34,400 more people infected in at least 27 countries. – February 8, 2020.