KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 — The Health Ministry (MOH) has identified another Covid-19 sub-cluster in Rembau, Negri Sembilan, linked to an attendee of the tabligh gathering at the Sri Petaling Mosque.
In the ministry’s daily press conference on the pandemic, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that the sub-cluster originated from a school worker there and spread to several localities in the district including Pedas, Pilin, Kundur and Batu Hampar.
“Up till 12 noon on April 8, 2020 there are 27 individuals detected to be positive for Covid-19 including two cases that were treated at intensive care units (ICU).
“This cluster was detected when Covid-19 screening returned positive results for several school teachers,” said Dr Noor Hisham.
Investigations revealed that the localised outbreak could have stemmed from a meeting at SK Pedas, which was attended by Case 448, an index patient from the Sri Petaling cluster.
The teachers and school workers went on to infect their family members, neighbours and respective communities.
There are currently three generations of infections in this sub-cluster and further investigations found that some in the community continued to visit the sick despite strict instructions under the movement control order (MCO) not to do so.
On other known clusters, he said the MoH has identified four major Covid-19 infection clusters. The first, which is the imported case from Italy has registered one additional case yesterday to a total of 41 cases and five deaths.
The second, which is the religious gathering at a church in Kuching, Sarawak saw an increase of 24 cases since yesterday to 110 total cases with two deaths.
The Bandar Baru Bangi Kenduri cluster saw two more cases being added to it for a total of 94 cases, no deaths, 15 fully recovered and four still being treated in ICU.
The tabligh gathering at Sri Petaling remains by far the biggest cluster, involving 1,682 individuals.
The Rembau subcluster saw 25 more cases being added to the index and an additional two more cases — leading to a total tally of 27 new cases.
Out of the 65 deaths in the country, 30 per cent came from the tabligh cluster that is already grown to five generations of infections.
