Covid-19: Community outbreaks make up half of 10 new clusters detected

PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry has detected five Covid-19 outbreaks within communities in Sarawak and Selangor.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said they were among 10 new clusters classified by the ministry on Friday (March 12).

One of them is the Jalan Kunci Air cluster, which has cases spread throughout the Gombak and Hulu Selangor districts.

"The index case of this cluster developed symptoms before testing positive for Covid-19 on March 1.

"A total of 205 individuals had undergone screening under this cluster, of which 18 were confirmed as positive cases," said Dr Noor Hisham.

The Sena cluster in Sarawak has 61 positive cases which originated from the locality of Lorong Sena 1A in Lutong, Miri.

"So far, 166 individuals have been screened and 61 cases have been confirmed," he said.

The five other new clusters classified by the ministry on Friday are all workplace infections, and they were detected in Selangor, Johor, Penang, Perak and Terengganu.

The Lintang Bayan Lepas cluster in Penang has 59 positive cases so far.

"The cases under this cluster were first detected on Feb 25 after workers of a factory at Lintang Bayan Lepas 6 in Penang tested positive, following a targeted screening exercise.

"So far 687 individuals have been screened," said Dr Noor Hisham.

Dr Noor Hisham said there are 440 active clusters in the country at present.