KOTA KINABALU: Sabahan Talib Omar, who succumbed to Covid-19 recently, was indeed 130-years-old, said his daughter, Kimri.
If true, this would have made Talib not only Malaysia's, but the world's oldest person.
Kimri has been attempting to put to rest questions raised by netizens about her father's dubious age, and noted that Talib showed no Covid-19 symptoms before being hospitalised.
"Yes. He was indeed 130-years-old based on a document he had.
"My father was still healthy and even visited me in Kota Kinabalu last Raya.
"However, he did not die yesterday as reported, but on Nov 3 when I came to visit him at Taman Telipok Ria here," she told the New Straits Times, adding that Talib was living with relatives, as she works in the state capital, and was unable to care for him.
The third of five children, Kimri said on the day Talib died, she had helped him to sit up and drink milk.
"Not long after that, he was gone, just like that, while seated. We informed the police about the death.
"Only after the swab test was taken did we find out that my father was infected with Covid-19," she said.
Taman Telipok Ria, which has about 18,000 residents, is under the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) until Dec 10.
Yesterday, the Health Ministry announced that a 130-year-old man was one of four Covid-19 casualties in Sabah.
Talib was the 35,037th person in Malaysia to contract the coronavirus, and the 352nd to die from it.
His age, which indicated that he was born in the 19th century, raised questions among netizens on whether it had been wrongly reported.
According to the Guinness World of Records, the oldest person who has ever lived was Jeanne Louise Calment, who died at the age of 122 years and 165 days in 1997.