Melaka health dept denies teacher died of new variant

Melaka health dept denies teacher died of new variant

However, director says they will only know in two weeks the variant that killed her.

Melaka health director Dr Ismail Ali has called on the people to stop spreading false news regarding the teacher’s death.
MELAKA:
The Melaka health department has rubbished claims that a teacher who died on Wednesday had been infected with a new Covid-19 variant but added that it needed two weeks to confirm the type of variant that had infected the female teacher.

State health director Dr Ismail Ali said the genomic surveillance of Covid-19 samples was being conducted by the Institute for Medical Research to identify and confirm the variant of the virus.

“It is a complex process and takes two weeks,” he said in a statement here today.

Therefore, he called on the people to stop spreading false news regarding the teacher’s death.

Ismail said the teacher became unwell on May 5 and had received treatment twice at a private clinic near her house before having cough and shortness of breath starting May 17.

“At 5am on May 19, the teacher was found unconscious. She was immediately sent to the Melaka Hospital, given respiratory assistance and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit for further treatment.

“The result of her Covid-19 RT-PCR test was positive and her condition deteriorated before she died on May 19, at 11.40pm,” he said.

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