New Covid-19 cluster in Cheras

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry has identified a new cluster of Covid-19 cases among security guards of a mall in Cheras, with 10 positive cases confirmed.

Of the 10, nine cases involved Nepalis while the remaining one is Malaysian.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the cluster was still being investigated, and that all workers and close contacts had been screened.

In his daily briefing yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham said all the Nepalis were living in the same place in Cheras.

He said one of the factors they had observed in this cluster and that of the workers at a construction site in Ampang was that they were living in cramped conditions.

He said in the security guard cluster, 15 of them were living in one apartment.

He said that besides the security personnel, workers of a supermarket in the mall were also screened for the disease.

So far, 436 people have been screened, with 10 testing positive, 347 testing negative, and 79 awaiting results. Another 39 Covid-19 cases were reported yesterday, bringing the number of infections in the country to 6,467.

Out of the 39 cases, only one is an imported case while the rest are local transmissions, with eight of them detected at a locality under the enhanced movement control order (MCO).

A total of 74 more patients were discharged in the same 24-hour span, which means 4,776 patients have recovered since the outbreak began.

The country’s death toll remains at 107 with no new deaths reported.

Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry would review the Covid-19 situation within two weeks of the conditional MCO before deciding the fate of some sectors.

“We will monitor the trend of cases in the following two weeks. Before we open more sectors, we will monitor and give our advice, ” he said, adding that barbers and hair salons had yet to be given the green light to operate as there was a risk of Covid-19 transmission between workers and customers, citing reported cases in Japan and the United States.

He also said that Malaysia had yet to come up with an “exit strategy”, although the government was adhering to the six criteria set by the World Health Organisation to end lockdowns.