COVID-19: 45 new cases reported today - Health DG

A total of 45 new cases were recorded today, comprising 44 local transmissions and one imported infection involving a Malaysian who had returned from Brazil, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said of the 44 local transmissions, 40 of the cases were from Benteng LD Sabah cluster, involving seven Malaysians and 33 non-Malaysians.

The other four local transmissions are in Kedah involving one case from Sungai cluster, Telaga cluster (two cases) and one positive case detected during asymptomatic screening at Simpang Kuala health clinic, which was admitted into Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital.

"Meanwhile, there were 24 cases of recovery, bringing the cumulative recovery cases in the country to 9,167,” he said during the daily press conference on COVID-19 here today.

On active cases, Dr Noor Hisham said nine patients were being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with five on respiratory assistance. There were no COVID-19-related deaths today.

The death toll remains at 128 cases.

Commenting on Benteng LD Cluster involving the districts of Lahad Datu and Tawau in Sabah, Dr Noor Hisham said a total of 1,909 individuals were screened in Tawau with 83 tested positive while 87 people tested positive out of 770 screened in Lahad Datu

For the Sungai cluster, 1,456 people were screened in Kedah with 39 tested positive while in Perlis, seven were screened and one was tested positive. As for the Telaga cluster, 4,626 individuals were screened in Kedah and 13 tested positive.

On the administrative Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) in Kota Setar, Kedah, Dr Noor Hisham said it was due to a significant increase in COVID-19 positive cases involving Sungai and Telaga clusters in the district.

"The implementation of administrative EMCO in Amanjaya, Kedah has been extended by another three days until Sept 13 to ensure the screening tests of residents in the area are carried out comprehensively.

"The Ministry of Health (MOH) also took note of the decision to implement the same action in the prison and quarters in Tawau, Sabah. Appropriate decisions and integrated actions by various agencies will help the ministry to continue to carry out public health control in all three areas,” he added.

In the press conference, Dr Noor Hisham said a total of 119,268 travellers had arrived in Malaysia from April 3 until yesterday.

Of the total, 995 positive COVID-19 cases were detected, of which 742 cases were found during arrival screening while the remaining 253 tested positive during the second screening on the 13th day.

"Following the increase of COVID-19 import cases in Malaysia, MOH has developed a risk assessment matrix on countries in the world to measure the risk of importing COVID-19 infection into Malaysia.

"This is important in deciding the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) and international border control. The result of the assessment on all 23 countries which have been restricted to travel to Malaysia found they are at high risk of bringing COVID-19 infection into our country,” he added.

He explained that the risk assessment criteria for importing COVID-19 infection is based on the Scoring Board: Merit System developed by MOH using data sourced from European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and Our World in Data.

-- BERNAMA