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COVID-19 | The Ministry of Health has registered 52 new cases of Covid-19 as of noon today, of which 40 were cases of local transmission, including 36 in Sabah.
They also discovered a new cluster of infection in Penang, involving a man who tested positive during a screening exercise upon arrival at Sandakan airport in Sabah. A relative of hers who lives in Penang has also tested positive for the virus.
According to the Director General of Health, Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, the increase of 52 new cases was against 40 patients who had fully recovered from the virus as of noon today.
“The new cases bring the total number of positive Covid-19 cases in Malaysia to 10,219 cases.
“Thus, the number of active cases with the capacity to spread the infection amounts to 734 cases. All of them have been isolated and received due treatment,” he said in a statement.
Noor Hisham said another 12 people who tested positive were import cases involving three Malaysians, while another nine were foreign nationals.
Of the 12, eight had arrived from India and one from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Yemen and Russia.
Lahad Datu cluster registrations on the rise
On local cases, Noor Hisham said 36 were recorded in Sabah, of which 27 date back to the Benteng Lahad Datu Cluster.
Fifteen of them are Malaysians, while the rest are foreigners. The Health Ministry did not provide details of the 15 Malaysians who tested positive and how they were linked to the other cases.
“With the 27 new cases, the total of positive individuals linked to this group is now 578 cases.
“So far, as of noon today, the Health Ministry has screened 8,627 people from this group,” he said.
For the record, Benteng Lahad Datu’s group was first detected in early September and dates back to two migrants who were detained at the Lahad Datu Police Headquarters facility. Since then it has spread to Tawau and Sandakan Prison.
To date, 426 of the cases have been tested in Tawau, 151 in Lahad Datu and one in Sandakan.
Those infected included prisoners, suspected criminals detained by the police, officials from the Department of Prisons and their families.
Another nine cases in Sabah were connected to Selamat Cluster (two cases), Pulau Cluster (one case), Bakau Cluster (one case) and another five that were detected through examinations carried out by the Ministry of Health in Semporna, Lahad Datu Hospital , and a mandatory employment pre-test.
New cluster detected in Penang
Noor Hisham said three other new cases were detected in Kedah and another in Penang.
The cases in Kedah, he said, were found during the Health Ministry’s detection exercise conducted in the Kota Setar community, which has been placed under the improved movement control (MCO) administrative order. All three are Malaysians.
In Penang, the only case found positive was connected to a new group called Ara Cluster.
“The index case in this group is a 44-year-old Malaysian man who tested positive for Covid-19 during screening at the Sandakan international entry point in Sabah on September 15, 2020. The test was performed upon the man’s arrival from Peninsular Malaysia.
“Following this, a close contact screening exercise was conducted and a positive case was identified on September 19. This positive case is a niece of the index case,” said Noor Hisham.
Since then, the Health Ministry had tested 14 other people. Her results came back negative.
