THE body of a deceased Covid-19 victim should not be exposed as it will still carry the virus on the surface, said the Health Ministry today.

Health director general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said a post-mortem conducted on one of the Covid-19 victims recently has confirmed that the virus remains on the surface of the body.

“The National Forensic Centre conducted the post-mortem and discovered that the virus was detected on the surface of the body,” he said in his daily press briefing in Putrajaya today.

He said the discovery was in tandem with the protocols established by the ministry on the handling of Covid-19 victims’ funerals.

He said the victim’s body must not be removed from the body bag for any religious or cultural rituals.

Whatever needed to be done must only be done on the body bag, he said.

He today announced three more deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 70.

Malaysia however continued to record a higher number of recoveries from Covid-19 than new infections, with 222 discharged from hospital in the last 24 hours versus 118 new cases.

The total discharged patients are now 1,830, Noor Hisham said.

The 118 new infections has raised the number of cases to 4,346, and is the second lowest number of new cases since the movement-control order (MCO) was enforced on March 18.

The lowest was 106 cases reported on March 24. – April 10, 2020.