PUTRAJAYA, Mar 27 (Sin Chew Daily) — The health ministry has confirmed with Sin Chew Daily that three of the 24 fatal COVID-19 cases in the country — i.e. Fatal Cases 5, 18 and 22 — were diagnosed with coronavirus at post-mortem.

Reports on whether Fatal Cases 23 and 24 were diagnosed only at post-mortem have yet to be released.

Fatal Case 5 was a 79-year-old Sarawak woman who was also the confirmed COVID-19 Case 1,031. She went to a private hospital for treatment on March 16 after developing a fever and cough for five days.

She experienced breathing difficulty on the following day but her family refused to put her on ventilator. She was discharged on March 17 and died the following day.

She was also the mother of Fatal Case 6 (Confirmed Case 1,032) and Fatal Case 13 (Confirmed Case 1,006).

In the meantime, Fatal Case 18 (Confirmed Case 1,625) was a 56-year-old man from Johor who was suffering from chronic illnesses. He was sent to Sultan Ismail Hospital on March 20 and died on March 23.

Fatal Case 22 (Confirmed Case 1,797) was a 48-year-old man from Johor who was also suffering from chronic illnesses. He was one of the participants at the tabligh event at Masjid Seri Petaling in Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, director-general of health Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah announced a new coronavirus-related death this morning, bringing the toll to 24.

The victim (Case 1,056) was a 35-year-old man who visited Indonesia early this month.

He was sent to Hospital Kuala Lumpur on March 18 after presenting suspected COVID-19 symptoms five days earlier. He was diagnosed with the virus on March 20.

He died at 21:30 Thursday night.