KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 — Active nationwide surveillance is underway to detect and contain sporadic cases of Covid-19, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

In his daily press briefing today, Dr Noor Hisham stated that the Health Ministry (MOH) has increased sporadic case detection through sentinel clinics nationwide and hopes to detect cases early so that appropriate action can be taken.

This was in response to questions posed by reporters on the new cases of Covid-19 recorded in Perak on May 10.

"If we look at the two new identified positive cases, it could be sporadic. We were able to detect them because they were screened before returning to work 

"So the compliance of the individual or the factory to document screening is good because we are able to identify sporadic cases and there are not many sporadic [cases]. They are decreasing right now,’’ he said.

The new cases in Perak involve siblings who both stayed in Sitiawan and are aged between 29 and 30.

The first case was detected through a Covid-19 screening before the individual was to return to work while the second case was detected through contact tracing.

Dr Noor Hisham also lauded the decision by private firms to conduct Covid-19 screenings, of their own volition, for their employees as it helps with early detection.

He also stated that to date, 9,010  samples were taken of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) and Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) cases at sentinel clinics nationwide and 81 cases were found to be Covid-19 positive, which is only 0.9 per cent.

To date, 11,470 samples have been collected from MOH employees, with only 65 confirmed to be Covid-19 positive.