COVID-19: 12 new cases recorded from Sivagangga Cluster today

The COVID-19 Sivagangga Cluster recorded 12 new cases today including 10 in Perlis and one in Penang, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said one more case was reported in Kedah.

This brings the total number of cases from the Sivagangga Cluster to 43 to date, with 31 in Kedah, 11 in Perlis and one in Penang.

"Ten new cases reported in Perlis today is related to case 9002 which was reported in the state on Aug 4, and they comprise members of a family, while one case in Kedah is a close contact (the wife) of case 9035 which was reported yesterday.

“The new case in Penang was from a screening conducted on July 30 as the patient had returned to her hometown which was one of the areas placed under the administrative Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO),” he said in a statement today.

Overall, Dr Noor Hisham said 25 new COVID-19 cases were recorded today, bringing the cumulative number of positive cases to 9,063 and number of active cases with infectivity to 210.

Dr Noor Hisham said from the total new cases, nine were imported cases which had been infected abroad, involving eight Malaysian citizens and one foreigner.

He added that 15 cases have recovered today, bringing the total number of recovery to 8,728 cases or 96.3 per cent of the total case.

To date, there are two COVID-19 positive cases being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) and one requires ventilator support.

No fatalities were reported today, and the death toll remains at 125 cases or 1.38 per cent of the total number of cases.

Elaborating on the Sivagangga Cluster, Dr Noor Hisham said a total of 1,884 close contacts have been identified and would be screened in Perlis and Penang.

"We will continue the close contact screening as well as the Active Case Detection activities. Prevention measures such as disinfection and decontamination will be carried out in areas that have been identified as closely related to this cluster,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said to date, some 3,246 people have been screened and from the total, 43 were found positive, 2,320 negative and 883 are still awaiting their results.

The Sivagangga Cluster involved a restaurant owner who returned to Malaysia from India and was placed under the Home Surveillance Order, but he failed to comply with the directive.

The man who owns a restaurant in Napoh, Jitra, Kedah was also reported to have not used the MySejahtera application on his premises and customers’ attendance and body temperatures were not recorded.

Following this, the government has enforced the administrative EMCO in four mukim in the state from Aug 3 to 30 to curb the cluster from spreading.

Based on the latest statement on COVID-19 today, the cluster was detected to have spread to Perlis and Penang.

-- BERNAMA