PUTRAJAYA, Aug 25 — Five primary schoolchildren in Kedah have been found positive for Covid-19 today and according to the Health Ministry (MOH) are part of the Tawar cluster.
With the latest infections today, the Tawar cluster now totals 70 cases.
However, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the infected children are not considered “super spreaders” of the coronavirus.
“They are not considered as super spreaders and we did find reports that said they were spreading the Covid-19 virus, but we have not found this to be accurate.
“What is important is to isolate the child if they are found to be infectious and treat those found positive in the hospitals,” Dr Noor Hisham said in his Covid-19 briefing here.
He also said MOH is investigating if the latest cases in the Tawar cluster are linked to the mutated coronavirus strain known as D614G.
He added that the ministry is trying to isolate the virus genome from samples from the Tawar cluster and culture it for study.
“With the mutated virus, the only difference is that it is highly contagious. Apart from that the treatment process is the same.
“We have our suspicions that the virus may have mutated, but we cannot be certain now. We need to study the virus, which is happening in our labs now,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham added that through public health action so far, the Sivagangga cluster infections in Kedah, Perlis and Penang has been successfully controlled through active case detection and the targeted enhanced movement control order.
