COVID-19: Three new clusters identified

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Health (MOH) has detected three new COVID-19 clusters in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Johor.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the first cluster namely the Jalan Lapan Cluster involved cases from the Hulu Langat district in Selangor, and Cheras, Kepong, Titiwangsa and Lembah Pantai in Kuala Lumpur.

He said the index case of the cluster (case 59246) tested positive during a symptomatic individual screening on Nov 25.

“As of today, 306 individuals have been screened with 25 testing positive,” he said in a statement today.

Dr Noor Hisham said the second cluster, the Batu Sembilan Cluster was detected in Selangor and involved cases from the districts of Kuala Langat, Klang, Petaling and Kuala Selangor.

The cluster involved an index case (case no 58486) identified through symptomatic individual screening on Nov 24.

“As of today, 83 individuals have been screened, with 19 of them testing positive for COVID-19 for the Batu Sembilan Cluster,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said the third cluster or the Nibong Cluster was detected in Johor Bahru whereby the index case (case 63151) tested positive on Nov 28 following the screening of symptomatic individuals.

“As of today, 152 individuals have been screened with 10 cases detected positive for COVID-19,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said the emergence of the three new clusters brought the total number of COVID-19 clusters in the country, to date, to 362.

Of the total, he said 181 clusters have ended including five that ended today, namely the Sofi Cluster, Tapah Prison Cluster, Kapor Cluster, Jambu Cluster and Meldrum Cluster.

“This brings the total number of active clusters to 181 and out of that number, 41 clusters reported an increase in cases.

“Clusters that reported the highest number of new cases today are the Perigi Cluster (153 cases), Bintang Cluster (71 cases) and Cergas Cluster (66 cases),” he said.

-- BERNAMA