- Malaysia’s cases included the wife and grandchildren of a man from Wuhan who was confirmed as Singapore’s first coronavirus case
- In Australia, a man who visited Wuhan was diagnosed with the virus after returning to Melbourne
Malaysia's health ministry on Saturday confirmed three Chinese nationals had been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
The three cases were the wife of a 66-year-old man from Wuhan who was confirmed as Singapore's first coronavirus case, as well as their two grandchildren, aged two and 11 years old, health ministry Dzulkefly Ahmad said at a press conference on Saturday.
They were warded at Sungai Buloh Hospital in Selangor and were in stable condition, he said.
The three entered Malaysia through Johor Baharu, and passed temperature screening checks with no signs of fever, the minister said.
The family was reported to have boarded a flight from Guangzhou to Singapore on January 20, 2020.
Nine people boarded the plane together with the 66-year-old Wuhan man: his wife, son, daughter-in-law, two grandchildren, and another family (consisting of a husband and two children) who were good friends of the family.
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The authorities managed to track down the suspect cases after receiving information from Singapore's health ministry.
Clinical samples were sent to the Sungai Buloh Public Health Laboratory, which confirmed the positive cases on Friday night, Dzulkefly said.
The minister added authorities were also awaiting the results of a laboratory test involving a Malaysian national who had travelled to China.
The woman was currently being treated in a solitary ward, he said.
The health ministry has advised all Malaysians to avoid or postpone travel to China.
Malaysia's announcement came as Australia earlier on Saturday confirmed its first case of the Wuhan coronavirus in its second-largest city.
The man, a patient in his 50s, had been in Wuhan before returning on January 19 to Melbourne, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said in a press conference.
He was in a stable condition and had been isolated to undergo treatment.
"It's important to stress there is no cause for alarm to the community," Mikakos said.
The man exhibited no symptoms on the flight, and his family contacted a doctor when he started seeming ill, Mikakos said. "They called ahead and he was double-masked when he presented to the clinic."
He was confirmed as positive before dawn on Saturday after a series of tests, Victoria's Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.
He had been in the city of Wuhan, where the deadly outbreak is believed to have originated, in the two weeks before the onset of his illness, the department said.
China coronavirus: new cases in Singapore, Japan, Nepal and Korea
He arrived to Melbourne via Guangzhou and the passengers who were on the flight with him will be contacted, the department said.
In New South Wales, Australia's largest state, the health department said on Saturday five people were being tested for coronavirus, but none of those cases had been confirmed, while in Queensland, two people were still being assessed for coronavirus.
Australia has changed its travel advice to advise its residents not to travel to the province of Hubei in China, which includes the city of Wuhan, due to the coronavirus outbreak.
China's National Health Commission on Saturday reported the number of people infected with the virus had risen to 1,287, with 41 deaths.
The commission said the latest tally came from 29 provinces across China, including 237 patients in serious condition.
All 41 deaths have been in China, including 39 in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, one in Hebei and one in Heilongjiang.
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Health authorities in Nepal on Friday confirmed that a student who returned from Wuhan tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the first South Asian country to report the deadly disease.
The 32-year-old student arrived in Nepal on January 9, and entered the Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital in Kathmandu four days later after running a fever and reporting trouble breathing, hospital spokesperson Anup Bastola said.
The health ministry confirmed the case in a statement.
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"The results of a sample, sent to Hong Kong, have returned positive," Bastola said. "He was discharged after recovery. We are monitoring the patient and he and his family members are healthy. So are all the health workers in the hospital."
Nepal's health ministry also said in a statement that surveillance has been increased at the airport, "and suspicious patients entering Nepal are being monitored with correct manpower and equipment".
Additional reporting by AP, AFP
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