The Ministry of Health (MOH) will focus more on monitoring and screening tahfiz students nationwide as COVID-19 cases are increasing among them, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said this was because they were likely to get the COVID-19 infection from the participants of the tabligh gathering.

"We have screened 2,697 students who are still living in madrasah so far and 250 or 9.3 per cent of them tested positive for COVID-19, " he said at the daily press conference on COVID-19 developments here Thursday.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, a total of 9,842 tahfiz students and over 304 madrasah were on the MOH record.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said that 28 COVID-19 clusters were detected throughout the country but some of them had been inactive because they had exceeded the 14-day incubation period.

He said the ministry was currently monitoring the clusters as to whether or not they are still active.

Commenting on the development of the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) at Masjid India and the surrounding areas, which was implemented on April 14, Dr Noor Hisham said it had screened 558 samples.

One of the samples turned out positive while 28 negative, he said.

He said the EMCO at Bandar Baru Ibrahim Majid, Johor recorded 11 new positive cases and one each at the Selangor Mansion, Kuala Lumpur and Sungai Lui, Selangor.

Dr Noor Hisham said Sendayan cluster, Negeri Sembilan had 26 new positive cases; Sarawak church cluster (five); Kampung Bharu flat cluster, Kuala Lumpur (three); and one each for PUI cluster from Italy in Sarawak and madrasah cluster in Sungai Lui, Selangor.

Asked whether the Movement Control Order (MCO) would be lifted for the states that have not recorded any positive COVID-19 cases, Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry would be looking into it.

"Although it is true that Kedah, Perlis as well as Penang, for the last couple of days, we don't have any cases reported but what is more important is that we need to wait for the incubation period of 14 days before we can say that it is clean.

"So we are now in the process of looking into it. Within 14 days, if there is no cases reported in the state than perhaps we can actually consider that state to be a green zone. That means it is important for us to protect the green state," he said.

-- BERNAMA