Over 2,500 people entering Langkawi screened, one tested positive for Covid-19, says Health DG

PETALING JAYA: One holidaymaker was found to be Covid-19 positive among more than 2,500 who were screened before entering Langkawi island, says Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic).

“On Saturday (Sept 18), a total of 2,507 individuals were screened through the Langkawi Tourism Bubble Pilot Project. Only one Covid-19 positive individual was identified through RTK-Ag at KLIA2. The Category 1 positive case was given a ten-day quarantine Home Surveillance Order (HSO),” Dr Noor Hisham said in the ministry’s daily Covid-19 updates.

Entry into Langkawi is only by sea and air, and authorities are ensuring only fully vaccinated tourists who have been screened for Covid-19 can set foot on the island. The travel bubble began on Thursday (Sept 16).

There were 15,549 new cases in total on Saturday, bringing Malaysia cumulative Covid-19 case number to 2,082,876.

However, there were also 17,205 recoveries nationwide for a total of 1,840,453 recoveries to date.

Dr Noor Hisham said there are 1,165 cases needing treatment in intensive care units (ICU). They comprised 888 Covid-19 patients and 277 suspected, probable and cases under investigation.

Of those in ICUs, 689 require ventilator support.

Dr Noor Hisham said that of the new daily cases, 263 cases (1.69%) were from categories 3, 4 and 5, while 15,286 cases (98.31%) were from categories 1 and 2.

Category 1 means a patient is asymptomatic. Category 2 is for those with mild symptoms.

Category 3 cases experience pneumonia, while cases in Category 4 have pneumonia and require oxygen. Category 5 patients are in a critical stage requiring ventilator support.

Of Saturday's new cases, five were imported cases while 15,544 were local infections.

Sarawak recorded the most cases with 2,929 new infections, followed by Johor (2,208), and Selangor (1995).

Only three localities reported less than 100 infections on Saturday - Perlis with 33, Putrajaya (31) and Labuan (11).

The latest data by the Health Ministry also showed that the Covid-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (Rt) in Malaysia was 0.95, with Sarawak registering the highest at 1.11, followed by Terengganu (1.05) and Perak (1.04). The states with the lowest recorded Rt are Selangor (0.85), Kuala Lumpur (0.81) and Labuan with a zero Rt.

The R0 of a virus is a measure of its transmission or number of new infections generated by each case. An R0 rate of 1, for example, means that on average, each infected person will infect another person they come into contact with.

Sixteen new Covid-19 clusters were also reported, bringing the total number of active clusters to 1,364. The new clusters were from workplaces (10), communities (4), and high-risk groups (2).