Health DG: Teratai cluster has not spread into the community

PUTRAJAYA: The Covid-19 cases in Malaysia’s biggest infection cluster has not spread into the community, the Health Ministry said.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the infections in the Teratai cluster in Selangor are only among workers, as well as their close contacts.

“Among the positive cases, there are 164 Malaysians who are workers of the company and they live outside, in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

“When they got home, they infected their family members. There are about 71 family members who have been infected.

“But outside the community, we have not detected any infections, ” said Dr Noor Hisham at the ministry’s Covid-19 press briefing here.

The Teratai cluster, which originates from workers of glove manufacturer Top Glove Corp Bhd, is currently Malaysia’s biggest Covid-19 infection cluster since the pandemic began.

Yesterday, the cluster recorded another 17 new cases, bringing the total number of infections linked to the cluster to 4,063.

Dr Noor Hisham said about 11,215 workers of Top Glove have been identified for screening.

So far, 6,506 workers have been screened.

“Those who test positive are admitted to hospitals. Those who test negative but have been exposed to positive cases, will have to undergo 14 day quarantine, ” said Dr Noor Hisham.

He added that the company has closed 20 factories, while another eight will follow suit in stages.

“However, the operation of some machinery cannot be halted, so it will still be allowed to operate, but at a minimal rate, ” he said.

Yesterday, Malaysia recorded 970 new Covid-19 cases, a huge reduction from the record breaking 2,188 cases reported the day before.

Dr Noor Hisham said the state with the most number of cases yesterday was Negri Sembilan, with 318.

Sabah reported 293 new cases, while Selangor, which had over 1,600 cases recorded the day before, recorded only 115 new cases.

The country also discharged 2,348 patients on the same day, the highest number of recoveries in a single day by far.

This means 46,501 have recovered from Covid-19 in the country.

Dr Noor Hisham also announced four new Covid-19 fatalities, taking the country’s death toll to 345.

On another matter, Dr Noor Hisham said the government’s decision to remove the quarantine requirement for travellers from Sabah who test negative for Covid-19 was due to the improved situation in the state.