PUTRAJAYA: Four new Covid-19 clusters were reported on Thursday (Oct 15), bringing the total of active clusters to 75.
At his daily Covid-19 briefing on Thursday (Oct 15), Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said one of the new clusters, dubbed the Bah Pasir cluster, involved both Negri Sembilan and Putrajaya.
“This new cluster involves the district of Port Dickson in Negri Sembilan and the Federal Territory of Putrajaya.
“The index case for this cluster was detected from a Covid-19 screening for individuals returning from Sabah.
“The patient was found positive for the virus on Oct 8 and has been admitted to Hospital Tuanku Jaafar in Seremban.
“Screening of the case’s close contacts found four more positive cases, ” said Dr Noor Hisham, whose briefing was aired live on the ministry’s Facebook.
Another cluster, the Bah Pengkalan cluster in Hulu Perak, also originated from an individual with travelling history to Sabah.
“The index case tested positive for Covid-19 on Oct 8 and was admitted to Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun in Ipoh. Tests on close contacts found five more positive cases, ” said Dr Noor Hisham.
Another new cluster, the Olive cluster, was found to have links in Hulu Langat in Selangor and the districts of Kota Marudu and Penamapang in Sabah.
“The index case was detected in Selangor following a screening on returnees from Sabah.
"The individual tested positive on Oct 2 and was admitted to Sungai Buloh Hospital, ” said Dr Noor Hisham.
A screening on the index case’s contacts found 16 more positive cases.
The fourth new cluster, the Saguking cluster, was detected at Labuan Hospital and its index case tested positive on Oct 11.
Screening on the individual’s close contacts found four more positive cases.
In total, there are 75 active clusters, with 103 already declared ended by the Health Ministry.
Clusters are classified as ended after no cases were recorded for 28 days consecutively.
Meanwhile, a 28-year-old Nepalese security guard at a shopping mall in the Petaling district is the case index for the Utama cluster, according to Dr Noor Hisham.
The Health director-general said the individual, case No. 15,023, showed symptoms including cough and flu from Sept 22 and tested positive on Oct 8, via a close contact screening.
He was admitted to Sungai Buloh Hospital for treatment.
"Previously, the Health Ministry suspected that case No. 12,549 was the case index, but further investigation found that the symptoms started much later compared to case No. 15,023."
He said the Utama cluster now had a total of 132 individuals who tested positive for Covid-19 after recording 105 new cases on Thursday.
"On Oct 15, a total of 105 new cases were identified within the cluster, bringing the total number to 132. A total of 131 cases were reported in Selangor, while one case was reported in Melaka," he said.
He added that the cases involved 107 non-citizens and 25 Malaysians.
The shopping mall was temporarily closed from Oct 11 to 16 for cleaning and disinfection exercise, said Dr Noor Hisham.
"Close contact screening and detection activities for active cases for this cluster are being continued by the district health office. The latest status of the cluster will be updated from time to time," he added.
