Covid-19: 10 new clusters recorded, says Health Ministry

PETALING JAYA: There were 362 cases originating from ten new clusters among the 8,743 new cases recorded on Saturday (Oct 9, says the Health Ministry.

According to Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic) in the ministry's daily Covid-19 update, the total number of active clusters is now 845. The new clusters were from workplaces (four), communities (four), and high-risk groups (two).

The four workplace clusters recorded 133 new cases, the four community clusters had 166 cases and the two high-risk clusters had 63 cases.

The cluster with the most Covid-19 cases was the Sungai Pelus community cluster in Perak with 98, followed by the Jalan Tampin-Gemas 2 workplace cluster in Negri Sembilan (68) and the Kampung Seboi community cluster in Pahang (51).

Malaysia's cumulative number of Covid-19 cases is now 2,332,221.

There were also 14,422 recoveries for a total of 2,184,711 to date.

"There are 770 cases requiring treatment in intensive care units (ICU). They comprise 714 Covid-19 patients and 56 suspected, probable and cases under investigation," said Dr Noor Hisham, adding that 419 cases require ventilator support.

Dr Noor Hisham said that of the new 8,743 cases, 122 cases (1.4%) were from categories 3, 4 and 5 while 8,621 cases (98.6%) 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, Category 4 cases have pneumonia and require oxygen while Category 5 patients are in critical condition and require ventilator support.

Of the new cases, 14 were imported cases while 8,729 were local infections.

The latest data by the Health Ministry also showed that the Covid-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (Rt) in Malaysia was 0.86, with Putrajaya registering the highest at 1.11, followed by Perlis (1.08) and Negri Sembilan (1.03). The states with the lowest recorded Rt are Johor and Sabah at 0.82, and Labuan with 0.