UPDATED 7PM: CORONAVIRUS | There are 28 new positive Covid-19 cases in the country as of noon today, bringing the total to 83, said the Health Ministry.

In a statement this evening, the ministry said contact tracing efforts are ongoing. It did not state the details of the new cases.

However, of the 83 patients, 65 are Malaysians, 15 China nationals and three from other countries.

Regarding Patient 26, Khazanah executive director Hisham Hamdan, 18 people who were in close contact with him tested positive for Covid-19.

A total of 256 out of 956 close contact individuals identified were linked to him.

Hisham had earlier issued a statement that while he is linked to the second wave of infections, he was not the source of it.

Seventy other close contacts with Hisham have tested negative but have been ordered to undergo 14-day home quarantine.

Meanwhile, The Star reported today that a parishioner from a Catholic church in Puchong had tested positive for Covid-19.

The Chancery of the Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Kuala Lumpur said the parishioner from the Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Taman Industri, Puchong, had tested positive yesterday and is now being treated at Sungai Buloh Hospital.

The church has been sanitised and will be open for mass this weekend.

All close contacts with the parishioner have also been told to get tested and undergo quarantine.

Of the infected patients, 23 have recovered, according to the Health Ministry.

Patient 24, it said, was cleared to be discharged today.