Covid-19: Spike in Johor cases caused by backlog, says state health dept

JOHOR BARU: The spike in new Covid-19 cases in Johor to 2,785 on Thursday (Aug 26) was due to a backlog of cases, says state Health and Environment Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan.

He said that 57.9%, or 1,613, of the new cases reported on Thursday were cases from more than four days ago.

"On Thursday, Johor recorded the highest number of cases in a day since the Covid-19 pandemic started.

"A majority of the cases were from the Johor Baru district (1,288), followed by Kluang (500) and Kulai (206).

"Backlog cases, those that were not reported over the past two weeks largely contributed to the surge in the numbers.

"The delay was caused by inaccurate and incomplete information received, making it difficult to trace the cases," he said in a statement on Friday (Aug 27).

He noted that on average, the number of new cases daily in Johor over the past two weeks was between 1,500 and 1,700.

"In the past 14 days, the number of cases in Johor is 22,239, which is about 17% of the cumulative number of cases (128,666) reported in the state since the beginning of the pandemic.

"Among the reasons contributing to the increase in the number of cases is the rise in new clusters. On Thursday, 10 new clusters were reported in Johor, where five were industrial clusters, three institutional clusters and two community clusters.

"Some 72% of active clusters in the state are industrial clusters, which involve 12,201 cases.

"The number of community clusters being reported is also increasing and about 10% of the current active clusters here are from communities," he added.

He said that the high number of positive cases from Covid-19 close contacts also showed that standard operating procedure (SOP) compliance among the public was still lacking.

"Johor has yet to move to the next phase of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) and as a responsible community, I hope that the public would take the Covid-19 situation here seriously and reduce their movement," he said.

On a separate matter, Vidyananthan also said the state Health Department had set up another centre where Covid-19 patients and their close contacts can remove their wristbands once they have completed their quarantine.

He said that the centre located at the Pasir Gudang Laman Extreme parking area had been operating daily since Aug 19.

Operating hours are from 2pm to 5pm from Sunday to Wednesday; and 10am to 1pm from Thursday to Saturday as well as on public holidays.