A total of 11 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in the last 24 hours, with five of them involving the Tawar cluster, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said that with the latest development as of 12 noon today, the total number of positive cases in the country stood at 9,285, including 189 active cases with infectivity.

“Of the 11 new cases, two were imported cases involving a Malaysian and a foreigner returning from the Philippines and Indonesia. Both cases were detected in Selangor,” he said at a press conference on COVID-19 here today.

He added that all the nine local transmissions involved Malaysians, with seven cases in Kedah, of which five were linked to the Tawar cluster.

Dr Noor Hisham said one case involved a pre-surgery screening at the Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital in Sungai Petani, who was then moved to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Setar, while another was tested after showing symptoms.

Meanwhile, one case in Selangor involved a case under investigation where the patient was asymptomatic and was admitted to the Sungai Buloh Hospital while one case in Perlis involved a patient with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) at the Tuanku Fauziah Hospital, he said.

To date, there are eight cases being treated in the intensive care unit, with six requiring ventilators, Dr Noor Hisham said.

"No COVID-19-related fatalities were reported today and the death toll remains at 125 cases, which is 1.35 per cent of the total number of cases,” he added.

He said six patients had fully recovered today, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 8,971 or 96.6 per cent of the case total.

Elaborating on the Tawar cluster, he said the five new cases today took the total number of cases related to the cluster to 70.

"All the five new cases involved pupils of a primary school in Kedah. They were identified through active case detection and close contact screening. Investigations showed that they are close contacts of case number 9,197, who is a pre-school pupil (case reported on Aug 16, 2020),” he said.

He said that as of noon today, a total of 3,547 people had been screened from the said cluster in Kedah, Penang and Perak. In Kedah 3,018 individuals were screened and 59 tested positive, 2,717 were negative while 242 are still waiting for their results.

“In Penang, 518 were screened, 11 tested positive and the rest negative. In Perak, all 11 who were screened tested negative. Close contact screening and field activities will continue. The current situation of this cluster and that of other clusters would be announced from time to time,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

The ministry reminded all schools to comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the Ministry of Education and National Security Council (MKN).

He also suggested that parents should continue to advise and educate their school-going children on practices that they should adopt to prevent COVID-19 infection in school buses, classrooms and during any sports or co-curricular activities.

-- BERNAMA