Annuar Musa: Over half of new Covid-19 cases in FT spread by close contacts

Tan Sri Annuar Musa. - ART CHEN / The Star filepic

MORE than half of new Covid-19 cases in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya on Thursday (July 15) were detected through mass screening of individuals who were in close contact with positive patients, says Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa.

He said in a statement on Friday (July 16) that based on data gathered by the Federal Territories Covid-19 Crisis Management Centre, 54% of the cases were from close contacts.

"Meanwhile, 28.5% of cases were due to sporadic infection.

"The majority of cases (88%) involve local citizens, while construction and factories contributed to less than 0.5% of the cases," he said.

Yesterday, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya recorded 1,499 and 53 cases respectively.

A total of 12% or 193 cases came from foreign workers.

"Patients from enhanced movement control order (EMCO) areas who were observing home quarantine may have infected their family members through close contact.

"The spread of the infection this way within EMCO areas could have stemmed from a Variant of Concern.

"The centre will continue to monitor the situation and come out with specific measures regarding home quarantine," he said.

Annuar added that the Covid-19 situation in both Federal Territories was under control and expected that the number of positive cases would drop from next week until the end of July as more people are vaccinated.