COVID-19: Health Ministry declares end of Malaysia's biggest cluster

Malaysia's biggest COVID-19 cluster that originated from the Seri Petaling Mosque tabligh gathering has recorded zero cases and, thus, declared to have ended today, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the cluster was detected following a religious gathering at the mosque, which was held from Feb 27 to March 3, and which was attended by 16,000 participants comprising 14,500 Malaysians and 1,500 foreigners from various countries.

"The Ministry of Health (MOH) is happy to announce that the biggest COVID-19 cluster in Malaysia, which is the Seri Petaling gathering, is declared to have ended today.

"The first COVID-19 positive cases from this cluster in the country were reported on March 11 (a week after the gathering ended), which were cases 131 and 136 involving Malaysians from Pahang and Negeri Sembilan who attended the gathering," he said at a COVID-19 news conference here today.

Dr Noor Hisham said there was a big possibility that this cluster originated from overseas and then spread within the community through close contacts during the mass gathering's activities.

Dr Noor Hisham said that until today (July 8), a total of 42,023 people from this cluster had been screened and, of that total, 3,375 cases were reported to be COVID-19 positive.

"Cases from this cluster and sub-clusters under it were detected in seven states, involving 2,550 Malaysians and 825 foreigners from 28 countries.

"Most of these positive cases were asymptomatic, which is 2,187 cases or 64.8 per cent of the total positive case from this cluster.

According to him, 87 patients were treated at the intensive care unit (ICU), with 29 of them needing ventilator support, and 3,341 individuals had recovered to take the recovery rate to 98.9 per cent.

Regarding fatalities involving this cluster, he said 34 deaths were recorded, of which 31 were Malaysians and three foreigners. Of the total, 30 were men.

He said that based on their investigation and focused approach, the MOH detected a total of 17 sub-clusters from this main cluster, including the Kampung Sungai Lui Cluster which also ended today, the Selangor Mansion Cluster and the Kuala Lumpur Wholesale Market Cluster.

“Since the early detection of this cluster, the government had carried out an aggressive and focused approach through active case detection of targeted groups in this cluster, who are the participants and close contacts of the gathering in Seri Petaling as well as students, tahfiz and madrasah centre employees nationwide.

“Four months have passed since we first detected this cluster and today is the last day of the 28-day period since the last case from this cluster was reported (which is case 8367) on June 11,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham described the achievement as a joint success for the MOH and other agencies which had cooperated through the integrated action to control and curb the spread of COVID-19 within this cluster.

He also emphasised the major role played by the media in disseminating information and communicating the risks regarding this cluster nationwide.

“Thank you also to the Seri Petaling Mosque for its concerted support and assistance. The cooperation by every member of the gathering was a big help in our efforts to trace, curb and treat COVID-19 cases,” he said.

-- BERNAMA