COVID-19: 20 new cases, 11 from two clusters in Kedah

The number of new COVID-19 cases increased to 20 today, with 10 cases involving the Tawar Cluster in Baling, Kedah, and another from the Muda Cluster in the same state.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said took the total number of positive cases recorded in the country so far to 9,149, with 196 of them still active.

He said of the 20 new cases, 13 were local transmissions, all involving Malaysian citizens.

"There are seven import cases who were infected abroad, involving six citizens and one non-citizen.

The seven import cases are from Lebanon (three cases in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur); Indonesia (one case in Selangor); France (one case in Selangor); Yemen (one case in Sarawak); and Taiwan (one case in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur), "he said in a press release on the development of COVID-19 today.

Commenting further, he said the local transmission cases in Kedah comprised 10 from the Tawar Cluster, one from the Muda Cluster and another Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) case, while in Penang, there was one case detected from screenings done under the Tawar Cluster.

Dr Noor Hisham said seven patients had fully recovered from COVID-19 today, taking the total number of recoveries to 8,828 cases (96.5 per cent of the total number of cases).

He added that there were four cases being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with one requiring respiratory assistance.

There were also no new COVID-19-related deaths recorded today, and the toll remains at 125 (1.37 per cent of the total cases).

-- BERNAMA