COVID-19: Nine new clusters, five involving workplaces, on second day of 2021

KUALA LUMPUR: Nine new COVID-19 clusters have been identified in the past 24 hours, with five of them involving workplaces.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the workplace clusters were detected through targetted screenings while the other clusters were detected through screening of symptomatic individuals, close contact screenings and screening of individuals from high risk areas.

The five clusters involving workplaces are Harum cluster and Dewani cluster in Johor Bahru, Johor, Casuarina construction site cluster in Sepang and Petaling, Selangor, Renggam cluster in Petaling, Sepang and Klang, and Jalan BBN cluster in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan.

"The Harum cluster reported the highest increase in new cases. The positive cases for this cluster today was through targetted screenings at the workplace with 435 individuals screened, and 206 cases were COVID-19 positive," he said in a statement regarding COVID-19 developments today.

He said that the Casuarina construction site cluster recorded 53 COVID-19 positive cases, Dewani cluster (25 cases), Renggam cluster (20 cases) and Jalan BBN cluster recording 27 cases.

Meanwhile, the four other new clusters are Batu Lapan cluster in Tambunan, Ranau and Kota Belud, Sabah, Belukar cluster in Machang, Kelantan, Kolam Permai cluster in Kuala Terengganu and Kemaman, Terengganu and Petaling in Selangor, and Mador cluster in Meradong and Sibu, Sarawak.

In the last 24 hours, Batu Lapan recorded 52 COVID-19 positive cases, followed by Belukar cluster (17 cases), Kolam Permai cluster (nine cases) and Mador cluster recorded eight cases.

Dr Noor Hisham also announced that the total number of active clusters being monitored stood at 229 clusters, and there were 294 clusters that have ended, including four that ended today, namely Seri Wangsa cluster, Batu Lima cluster, OAD cluster and Kasah cluster.

-- BERNAMA