CORONAVIRUS | Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has confirmed that two Malaysians aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship have testesd positive for Covid-19.

"Two Malaysians on Diamond Princess cruise were confirmed to be infected with Covid-19 and two more pending awaiting anxiously for their results," he said in a Facebook post this morning.

He added that the two infected patients are being isolated and managed in Japan.

The quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, with more than 400 cases has by far the largest cluster outside China, has become the biggest test so far of other countries’ ability to contain an outbreak that has killed 1,868 people in China and five elsewhere.

All passengers were taken into a two-week quarantine, after which more than 300 American passengers, including 14 who tested positive for coronavirus, were flown home to military bases in the United States.