Putrajaya detects nine more Covid-19 clusters across the nation, mostly workplaces

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — The health ministry detected nine more clusters as of today spreading across Malaysia.

Its director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham said that two clusters from Selangor, namely the Tapak Bina Perdana Avenue and Osmo Jaya clusters, were discovered during workplaces screenings.

“Contact tracing was conducted on a total of 783 people and 202 were found positive under this cluster,” Dr Noor Hisham said of the Tapak Bina Perdana Avenue cluster.

He said the Osmo Jaya cluster was found to have originated from a Covid-19 positive case discovered through targeted workplace screening starting from December 30.

He added that close contact screenings were conducted and 46 more positive cases were detected.

He said another three clusters in Johor, dubbed Belati, Wawasan Gading and Rengit Sentral, were found spreading across the state.

“As of today, 277 people have been screened under the Belati cluster, with 44 more positive cases found,” Dr Noor Hisham said.

He said the index patient in the Wawasan Gading cluster was found on December 14 during a screening after the patient displayed symptoms.

As of today, 175 have undergone screenings and 13 tested positive.

For the Rengit Sentral cluster, the index patient was found through screening before returning to the original country.

Two clusters, namely Manik and Paloh Tumpat, were detected in Kelantan.

“As of today, 168 people have been screened under the Manik cluster, with 22 more positive cases found,” Dr Noor Hisham said.

He said the index patient in the Paloh Tumpat cluster was found on December 31 through asymptomatic screening.

As of today, 39 have undergone screenings and 15 tested positive.

Meanwhile in Sabah, one cluster was detected spreading across Kota Kinabalu and Penampang.

“A total of 42 screened under Lintas Seraya cluster and found 16 more positive cases,” he said.

Sarawak also detected one cluster, dubbed Stutong, found spreading across Kuching.

The index patient for Stutong cluster was found through individual asymptomatic screenings on January 1.

Close contact screening was conducted and five more positive cases were found under the Stutong cluster.