Health Ministry to tweak Covid-19 death data

Some people were shown to be Covid-19 positive after dying of other causes, the health ministry said.

PETALING JAYA: The health ministry is looking into the possibility of updating the data on Covid-19 deaths, by separating those whose deaths were directly linked to the coronavirus from those who died of other causes.

The director-general of health, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, said at his daily briefing today that “there had been cases linked to (other) diseases, accidents or where the cause of death was not Covid-19, but when we took swabs the tests turned out positive.

“For example, in the case of the 113th death, the patient had final stage lung cancer and was given leave for palliative care at home. After that, the patient’s health deteriorated further and when the (Covid-19) test was conducted, it happened to be positive but the cause of death was lung cancer.

“This is what we are discussing, whether we should consider it a positive Covid-19 case, or cause of death like suicide but Covid-19; so far we registered such cases as Covid-19,” he added.

Malaysia has recorded 113 deaths from Covid-19 so far.

One new death was reported by the health ministry today, a 53-year-old Malaysian woman who was a medical worker in Sabah.

She had been suffering from cancer and high blood pressure and was admitted to the Women and Children’s Hospital in Likas, Sabah, on May 5 before being tested as Covid-19 positive. She died on May 7 and investigations were carried out into whether she died of cancer or from the virus. - FMT