THERE are currently 107 people in quarantine at government hospitals nationwide as well as under house surveillance following the coronavirus outbreak, said Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

“As of 10am today, we have quarantined 107 people. These people have had close contact with others who have tested positive for the virus,” he said.

Today, Dzulkefly confirmed the country’s 18th case – a man who has just returned from China – and revealed that the ministry has managed to trace 22 people who had been in close contact with him, including three members of his family and 19 medical staff.

The man, who worked in Macau, returned home on February 1 before falling ill two days later.

He sought medical treatment at three different medical centres before he was sent to Sungai Buloh Hospital after being diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) on February 7.

He was confirmed as the 18th case of the coronavirus yesterday.

Meanwhile, Dzulkefly said that, at the moment, there is no need for employees to begin working from home due to the virus.

“At the moment, the situation does not reach to a stage where we would allow employees to work from home. There is no indication yet for the government to take such measure,” he added.

In China, AFP reports that the number of deaths from the coronavirus epidemic jumped to 904 today after the hardest-hit province of Hubei reported 91 new fatalities.

In its daily update, the Hubei health commission also confirmed at least 2,600 more cases in the central province, where the outbreak emerged in December.

There are now more than 39,800 confirmed cases across China, based on previously released figures from the government.

The new virus is believed to have emerged last year in a market that sells wild animals in Hubei’s capital Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak, before spreading across the country.

The only confirmed fatalities outside the mainland are a Chinese man in the Philippines and a 39-year-old man in Hong Kong.

The toll has overtaken the global number of deaths caused by the SARS virus, which killed 774 people between 2002 and 2003. – February 10, 2020.