Two Covid-19 clusters in Kedah but ‘under control’

ALOR SETAR: The situation is under control at Kuala Muda and Kota Setar, where two clusters of Covid-19 have been detected, says Kedah health committee chairman Mansor Zakaria.

“There are more than two cases in the industrial area and at the home,” he said as he confirmed both the clusters were at a factory in Kuala Muda and an elderly care centre in Kota Setar.

“Sporadic cases” refer to one or more that are either imported or detected locally, while “clusters of cases” refers to cases that are clustered in time, location or by common exposure.

Earlier, Mansor was reported as saying that the total number of cases during the 51st epidemiological week (Dec 17-23) showed an increase of 266, or 25.4% higher than the previous week.

“There were 142 cases being warded in hospital, including 10 cases being monitored in the intensive care unit. About 88% of the cases were reported through symptomatic tests.

“In total, there have been nine deaths due to Covid-19 recorded since Dec 1,” he said.

In Kedah, Kulim recorded the highest number of cases at 498, followed by Kuala Muda (352), Kota Setar (150) and Kubang Pasu (105).

On Dec 18, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said the government was not considering re-imposing the movement control order despite the spike in Covid-19 cases nationwide.

However, he urged the people to increase their vigilance, adding that his ministry was preparing a five-point strategy to deal with the increase in cases.

These include early case detection via the Heightened Alert System (HAS), community tracing via the test, report, isolate, inform and seek system (TRIIS), monitoring of health facilities, effective risk communication, and digitisation of the health system via the MySejahtera application.