Covid-19: Nine new clusters, four involving workplaces, says Health DG

PETALING JAYA: Nine new Covid-19 clusters were detected on Saturday (Oct 16), bringing the current number of active ones in Malaysia to 702.

"Of the nine new clusters, four were involving workplaces while three were from the education sector," Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in his daily Covid-19 statement on Saturday (Oct 16).

In one of the education clusters, the index patient was a six-year-old Malaysian boy who was reported to be positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday (Oct 13).

The cluster involved students from an education institution in Kampung Sekolah Juru, Bukit Mertajam in Penang.

Other new clusters identified on Saturday (Oct 16) included a high risk group in Johor and a community cluster in Perak.

Recoveries continued to outpace new infections, with 9,531 cases as opposed to the 7,509 new Covid-19 cases.

Dr Noor Hisham said of the new coronavirus cases on Saturday, 98.5% were those who were asymptomatic (Category One) and with mild symptoms (Category Two).

"Only 1.5% (116 cases) are Category Three, Four and Five infections (cases with more severe symptoms)," he added.

Some 695 patients were being treated in intensive care units, with 65 being suspected Covid-19 cases.

Currently, 347 patients require ventilator support, of which 66 are probable Covid-19 cases.

Meanwhile, Malaysia’s infectivity rate (Rt) is at 0.87, with all states recording values below 1.0, except Putrajaya (1.04) and Negri Sembilan (1.03)

The Rt (also known as R0 or R-naught) value refers to the average number of people that a person with Covid-19 infects.