Malaysian Health Ministry Says Coronavirus is Not Turning People Into Zombies

Posted on February 2, 2020

Malaysia's health ministry took to Twitter to dismiss a rumor that the Wuhan novel coronavirus can turn victims into zombies.

Hopefully, this was not a rumor that many people were likely taken seriously. There may have been some confusion with walking pneumonia (atypical pneumonia), which can by a symptom of the virus. In most cases, patients with severe pneumonia from the virus are more likely to be in bed and extremely lethargic.

Here's the zombie-related health tweet from Malaysia:

Tiga fakta novel coronavirus 2019 yang perlu ditular.

1. Tidak benar dakwaan individu yang dijangkiti virus ini berkelakuan seperti ZOMBIE. ÃƒÂ¢Ã‚ÂÃ…â€™

2. Pesakit boleh SEMBUH. ÃƒÂ¢Ã…â€œÃ¢â‚¬ÂÃƒÂ¯Ã‚Â¸Ã‚ÂRawatan simptom yg dialami pesakit. Jika demam, rawatan untuk baik demam.
— KKMPutrajaya (@KKMPutrajaya) January 31, 2020

The South China Morning Post translated the tweet to read, "The claim that individuals infected with this virus will behave like zombies is not true ... Patients can recover."

COVID-19