KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — The Ministry of Health has reported three new Covid-19 clusters today.
Two out of the three new clusters are located in the Klang Valley — condominiums in Hulu Langat and Bukit Bintang — while one more is located at a construction site in Kuching, Sarawak, its director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.
“Three out of the four local transmissions reported today are detected from these three new clusters,” he said during the ministry’s briefing on Covid-19 today.
From the Bukit Bintang cluster, the Health Ministry has detected 10 Covid-19 positive cases involving nine Bangladeshis and one Malaysian.
“The index case for this cluster (Case #8,498) is a foreigner who had undergone Covid-19 screening prior to returning to work was tested positive on June 15.
“Investigation and close contact tracing are also underway,” said Dr Noor Hisham.
He added that, so far 274 people have been screened where 203 are foreigners and 71 are Malaysians.
From the investigation, the ministry found that nine (not including one positive reported today) were tested positive while 265 tested negative.
“Out of the 10 positive cases, seven are the index case’s housemates.
“We are still investigating the cause of this cluster infection,” he said.
A new cluster was also detected at a construction site in Kuching, Sarawak, Dr Noor Hisham said.
“This cluster was first discovered when the third case in this cluster (Case #8,591) was tested positive of the virus after undergoing a Covid-19 screening at a private clinic.
“The person is a supervisor of two Indonesian citizen staff who were screened on June 16 at their work place,” he said.
Subsequently, investigations and screening of close contacts were carried out on construction workers and their family members.
To date, 426 close contacts have been identified where 62 were tested negative and the remaining 364 close contacts are awaiting their test results.
“The cause of cluster infection is is still under investigation,” said Dr Noor Hisham.
As for the Hulu Langat Covid-19 infection cluster, Dr Noor Hisham said the index case (Case #8,368) is a student from a tahfiz school who was tested on June 8.
“Active case tracking activities that were carried out detected two more positive within this cluster.
“The first case is not a Malaysian citizen (Case #5,818) but is an foster uncle to the index case (the tahfiz school student).
“While the uncle lives in a separate accommodation, however they visit each other. A colleague of the case 5,818 has also been tested positive (Case #5,894),” he said.
As of today, 40 close contacts have been identified and screened, he added.
“Of this total, 26 are is not Malaysian citizens and 14 are Malaysians.
“From the test results, three cases were tested positive while 30 are negative, and seven still awaiting results,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said the Setia Alam construction site cluster has ended today.
On May 26, 13 Covid-19 positive cases were detected from the Setia Alam construction site cluster, all of which were workers from Bangladesh.
