Two positive COVID-19 cases were reported today, both local transmissions involving Malaysians, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said this brings the cumulative figure of positive cases in Malaysia to 9,001, including 208 active cases with infectivity.

“No imported cases which were infected overseas were reported today. The local transmission cases comprise one from the Sivagangga PUI Cluster in Kedah and one in the Federal Territory of Labuan, detected from a random screening of college students,” he told a media conference on COVID-19 here.

He said four cases were discharged today, bringing the total number of recoveries to 8,668, or 96.3 per cent of the cumulative figure of cases.

Elaborating on the Sivagangga PUI Cluster, Dr Noor Hisham said the index case is a restaurant owner who returned to Malaysia from India and failed to observe the Home Surveillance Order (HSO).

His non-compliance had resulted in a major spread of infections in the cluster. So far, 425 people have been screened and of this number, 21 were tested positive, 362 negative and 42 are still awaiting their results.

“The infections were also confirmed through the active case detection conducted by the government. However, the District Health Office and State Health Department faced challenges in tracing all close contacts because the shop did not use the MySejahtera app,” he added.

Dr Noor Hisham said the case reported today from the cluster, case number 9,000, was a regular customer of the restaurant.

Dr Noor Hisham said the patient had volunteered for COVID-19 test at a private health facility on July 27 and the Rapid Test Kit Antibody screening turned out negative.

On July 31, the patient started having symptoms of fever and cough but did not contact the nearest District Health Office or health clinic for immediate treatment.

“Only one day later, after having participated in Hari Raya Aidiladha activities, did the case (number 9,000) admit to being a close contact of the index case. Following that, RT-PCR was conducted and the individual was confirmed to be COVID-19 positive.

“The patient has been admitted to Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah for treatment,” he added.

Dr Noor Hisham said this case should serve as a lesson to the people to not hide important information like being a close contact of COVID-19 patients from the authorities.

He said those who had a high risk of being exposed to the virus or are close contacts of positive cases had a social responsibility to step forward for screening to help prevent the spread of the disease.

He also urged all employers, businesses and premises owners to register for the MySejahtera app on the ministry website, saying the use of the app had been made compulsory to facilitate contact tracing for COVID-19 cases.

Apart from the Sivagangga PUI Cluster, Dr Noor Hisham said other active clusters were also found to have been caused by a violation of HSO, namely the Elsa, Novgorod PUI, Pitakwa PUI, Melbourne PUI, Ramnad PUI, Al Khobar PUI and Shirala PUI clusters.

-- BERNAMA