COVID-19 patients will be discharged after two weeks of treatment according to the Ministry of Health’s new protocols, said director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

According to Noor Hisham, doctors will be able to discharge patients because the chances of infecting others is “almost zero”, he said at the daily press conference on Covid-19 today.

“We will inform all of our specialists at hospitals of the new protocols, which will be implemented whereby we will treat new cases for only 14 days.

“Even if they are tested positive after 14 days, the chances of infection is almost zero.”

The new protocol is based on the World Health Organisation’s latest report.

Noor Hisham added that it is possible for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test to yield a positive result after two weeks, as the test may detect remnants of the virus.

Previously, patients were kept in hospital if the PCR test yielded positive results on the 13th day after admission and treatment.

Malaysia today recorded new Covid-19 cases in the triple digits for the second straight day, with 187 new infections involving 173 people, mostly at Immigration detention centres.

This raises the total number of infections to 7,604, Noor Hisham said today.

Of the new infections, 155 cases were at Bukit Jalil Immigration Detention Centre, while 13 are from the Cheras security guards cluster.

Meanwhile, 62 people have recovered and have been discharged from hospital as of noon today. – May 26, 2020.