QEH laboratory has increased its capacity for Covid-19 detection.
KOTA KINABALU: The State Health Department has reported a 43 percent decrease in malaria cases as of April 18 this year compared to the year before.
Its director, Datuk Dr Christina Rundi, attributed the decline in malaria cases to the Movement Control Order (MCO).
She said Sabah had not recorded any case of local human malaria infection since 2018.
“As of April 18 this year, Sabah has reported 407 zoonotic malaria cases, one imported case, two introduced cases and one induced case.
“The number of malaria cases reported this year was 43 percent less compared to the same period last year.
“The MCO has in some ways contributed to the decrease of malaria cases in Sabah,” she said in a statement on Saturday, in conjunction with the World Malaria Day.
Dr Rundi also said that the laboratory team in Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) has increased its capacity to detect novel coronavirus (Covid-19) cases since March 30.
Since April 25, she said the QEH laboratory had conducted 5,460 tests for Covid-19.
Dr Rundi said this was possible following modification to the laboratory to create a larger, safer and more conducive working space.
The State Health Department has reported that the number of Covid-19 cases remained at 311 on April 25.
Dr Rundi said there were nine positive samples out of the 1,096 tests conducted on April 24, but all the positive samples were repeat tests.