KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — The Health Ministry has recorded nine new Covid-19 cases today, four of which are imported cases where the infection occurred abroad.
Its director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this brings the total number of infections in Malaysia to 9,249 cases, with 179 cases currently active.
“Of the imported cases, these include one from the Philippines and detected in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur; one from Austria, also detected in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur; one from Indonesia and detected in Selangor; and one from India, detected in Selangor,” he said in a statement.
The remaining five domestic cases involve four Malaysians and one foreigner, who tested positive during a pre-flight screening before departing to his/her country of origin.
“The foreign national was discovered to be asymptomatic, and admitted into Sarawak General Hospital. As for the Malaysians, three are from the ongoing Tawar cluster in Kedah, while one is from the most-recent Maju cluster in KL.
“At present, seven cases are still being treated in Intensive Care Units (ICU), with four requiring ventilators,” Dr Noor Hisham said.
The 13 recoveries recorded today bring the total number of recoveries to 8,945 cases, or 96.7 per cent overall. No deaths were reported today, leaving the number of fatalities at 125 cases, or 1.35 per cent of all total cases.
On the Tawar cluster, the director-general said the three new cases recorded today bring the total number of Covid-19 positive individuals in the cluster to 58 cases.
“As of noon today, approximately 2,733 people have been screened. This includes 2,256 in Kedah where 47 tested positive, 446 in Penang where 11 tested positive, and 11 in Perak where all tested negative.
“Contact tracing and detection efforts for this cluster are still ongoing, with developments to be announced to the public from time to time,” he said.
Malaysia has recorded a total of 101 Covid-19 clusters emerging since the pandemic began to affect the country earlier this year. Currently, 84 have since been resolved while 17 remain active.
The active clusters with the highest number of cases include Tawar with 58, Sivagangga with 15 and Sala with 11.
