Covid-19: 14 new clusters, six linked to education sector

PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry identified 14 new Covid-19 clusters on Monday (April 19), with six linked to the education sector.

Read more here: Covid-19: 2,078 new cases, eight new fatalities

In his daily Covid-19 updates, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said three of the clusters involving the education sector were in Kelantan, while the rest were in Sabah, Johor and Kedah.

One of them, named the Jalan Hospital cluster, involves staff and students of a school at Kampung Kubang Terap in Pasir Mas, Kelantan.

“The index case of this cluster had developed symptoms and later tested positive on April 13.

“A total of 525 individuals had to be screened, and 50 positive cases have been confirmed under this cluster,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

In Johor, the Jalan Medan Aliff cluster involves an education centre located in Taman Damansara Aliff, Johor Baru.

“The cluster’s index case tested positive on April 15 after developing symptoms. Screening conducted on 67 individuals found a total of nine confirmed cases under this cluster,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

Four other new clusters have been classified as community outbreaks; three are linked to workplaces while one is related to a religious event.

The Sungai Duan cluster in Mukah, Sarawak is a community outbreak, which has so far found 84 positive cases.

It is the cluster with the highest increase in the country on Monday.

“A targeted screening exercise was conducted at the Sungai Duan community since April 2. To date, 321 people have been screened and 84 tested positive,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

Dr Noor Hisham said there are now 340 active clusters nationwide.