MIRI: Sarawak's closest neighbour, Brunei, has announced that the sultanate recorded 14 new cases of Covid-19 positive cases in a single day on Thursday (March 12).

The Brunei Ministry of Health in a statement on Friday (March 13) said there are now 25 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Brunei.

"Since the first positive case was confirmed this Monday, there have been 25 confirmed cases now in Brunei.

"The 14 new cases were confirmed on Thursday (March 12), the biggest increase in confirmed cases in a single day so far," the ministry said.

It said the first of these Covid-19 cases was that of a 53-year- old man who had travelled to Kuala Lumpur via flight from Miri.

He went to the Masjid Seri Petaling to attend a mass prayer event from Feb 27 to March 1, then returned by flight to Miri on March 3 before going shopping there.

He then went back to Brunei by land via the Sungai Tujuh immigration checkpoint.

On March 6, he again came to Miri by land and went on a shopping spree before returning to Brunei.

On Monday (March 9), he was hospitalised in Brunei after showing serious illnesses and was then confirmed to have been infected.

The Brunei Health Ministry said many of the new confirmed cases were people who might have travelled with the man to Kuala Lumpur.

However, there are two confirmed patients who did not go to the KL mosque but who contracted the disease inside Brunei via contact with their infected spouses, said the ministry.

The ministry said all 25 Covid-19 patients were under intensive care in a special isolation centre in Brunei.

It said a total of 81 people had travelled to the KL mosque event and the authorities were trying to locate all of them.

The ministry is investigating when and where the 25 confirmed patients had contracted the Covid-19.

In the meantime, people in Miri are circulating messages claiming that the infected Bruneians had gone shopping in various places in Miri.

One said the Brunei Health Ministry must disclose exactly where these infected Bruneians had contracted the Covid-19.

"Did they contract the Covid-19 while in Brunei and then came to Miri and took the flight from here to go to KL or did they get infected while in KL and then flew back to Miri then went around shopping here?"

Up to 40,000 Bruneians cross the border to come here daily for food, shopping and entertainment.