The new patient – a 67-year-old tourist and a family friend of the 14th case – was confirmed at the health ministry’s crisis preparedness and response centre yesterday.

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said this was considered a close contact case, adding that the patient was currently in isolation at Kuala Lumpur Hospital and in stable condition.

This brings the cumulative number of positive cases to 16, comprising 12 China nationals and four Malaysians, two of whom were brought back in the special humanitarian mission to Wuhan, China.

Wan Azizah said one patient was waiting for the results of a third re-examination test to be cleared of the virus after two earlier tests came back negative.

She said the patient had responded well to antiretroviral medication, typically used for HIV patients, after being found with symptoms of pneumonia.

“The patient will be allowed to leave after the third test comes back negative,” she said at a press conference here today.

She said the other 15 patients were undergoing treatment and were in stable condition.

Asked if Putrajaya would follow Singapore in raising the alert level, Wan Azizah said the government would meet with its counterparts there soon, but the concern now was on sporadic cases.

“We don’t want to have cases from Malaysian to Malaysian that have never gone to China or never had any contact with Chinese nationals.

“These are the sporadic cases. That’s what we’re looking out for and we have to be on the alert for that,” she said.

Wan Azizah said the health ministry had conducted contact tracing on 69 individuals who came into contact with the Malaysian who contracted the virus after a business conference in Singapore.

A sister of the Malaysian has been confirmed to have contracted the virus but the others, comprising family members and neighbours, tested negative.