Covid-19: 58 New Cases

489
- Advertisement - [resads_adspot id="2"]

There are 58 new Covid-19 cases today, with a new cluster detected in Kunak, Sabah involving undocumented migrants.

From the new cases, 53 were local transmissions and five were imported, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the total number of cases in the country currently stands at 9,868 cases, with the total number of active cases at 551.

“The five imported cases involve three Malaysians (who returned from Pakistan, India and Indonesia) and two foreigners (one Syrian detected in Selangor and one undocumented migrant from the Philippines, detected in Sabah).

“From the 53 local transmissions, 29 are Malaysians, while the remaining 24 are foreigners,” he said in a statement today.

He said a large majority of the local transmissions were from Sabah, where 44 of them were linked to the Benteng LD cluster (including 21 foreigners) and four cases connected to the new cluster, called Laut (involving foreigners).

Five other local transmission cases, he said, were from the Sungai cluster in Kedah.

Elaborating on the Laut cluster, Dr Noor Hisham said the index case was Case 9,859 who is a detainee at the Tawau temporary detention centre. The person was sent back to his country of origin (Zamboanga, Philippines) on Aug 27.

“However, on Sept 5, he entered Sabah illegally to visit his wife. The wife (Case-9860) was tested positive on Sept 8 following a referral screening from the Kunak Hospital to the Tawau Hospital for treatment of postpartum bleeding complications.

“She was found to be symptomatic on Sept 6. Following Active Case Detection and close contact screening, two more positive cases were detected, which are her child and neighbour (case-9,861 case and case-9,862 case).”

He said as of Sept 12, 49 people linked to this cluster had been screened, involving Philippine nationals.

From the number, he said, four were positive, 14 negative and 31 still awaiting test results.

“Measures to prevent the spread of infections such as through disinfection and sanitisation have been carried out at the identified locations. The cause of infection is still under investigation.”

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said eight Covid-19 patients had recovered and were discharged today, raising the cumulative number of recovered cases to 9,189.

He added there were nine Covid-19 cases being treated at the intensive care units, with five on ventilator support.

No new deaths were reported today and the number of Covid-19 fatalities remains 128 (1.30 percent). – NST