PUTRAJAYA: What was thought to be Malaysia's first sporadic case of Covid-19 has been traced to the religious (tabligh) event in Sri Petaling.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic) said now it has been traced to a source, it cannot be considered as a sporadic case any more.

"Sporadic cases are positive Covid-19 cases that have no links to any cluster or any source.

"For this case, the individual was discovered through our severe acute respiratory infection surveillance screening.

"The individual tested positive for Covid-19. However, after investigation, the patient was found to have attended the religious event at Masjid Sri Petaling. Therefore, this is not a sporadic case," said Dr Noor Hisham at a press conference after a multi-agency working committee meeting on Covid-19 here on Thursday (March 12).

The occurrence of a sporadic case is an indication that the disease has spread into the community.

On Wednesday (March 11), the Health Ministry said in a statement that the case was detected after testing a total of 600 samples, 138 for severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARI) and 462 for influenza-like-illness (ILI).

The ministry had conducted Covid-19 surveillance to detect sporadic and local cases in Malaysia through patients with ILI and SARI with no history of travelling to affected countries of contacts with confirmed Covid-19 cases.