COVID-19 weekly round-up: Malaysia continues to be battered by new cases

KUALA LUMPUR: The spike in daily new COVID-19 cases in Malaysia is expected to linger until the year-end largely due to wide-scale screening of workers, particularly those working in factories and at construction sites, that started on Dec 1.

Various new clusters have already emerged from the screening exercises and some of them reported over 100 positive cases on the day they were announced by the Ministry of Health (MOH).

Today, six new clusters were announced, all of them involving workplaces. Two of them are in Selangor, Sungai Putus cluster in Klang with 427 positive cases and Erima cluster in Gombak district with 29 cases.

The third cluster is in Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Berangan Construction Site cluster with six cases while the fourth, Langkasuka cluster, is in Kulai, Johor, with 14 cases.

The fifth, Jalan College cluster, is in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, with 11 cases and the sixth, Sungai Keluang cluster, is in Penang with 16 cases.

Yesterday, three new construction site clusters were reported, namely Jalan Bukit Construction Site cluster with 47 cases in Hulu Selangor, Selangor; Condong Construction Site cluster in Kuala Lumpur with 24 cases; and Jalan Stadium Construction Site cluster with 15 cases, also in Kuala Lumpur.

On Saturday, Dec 5, the new Bulatan Construction Site cluster (involving Cheras, Titiwangsa and Lembah Pantai districts in Kuala Lumpur) recorded 163 positive cases.

On Sunday, Dec 6, a new cluster, Ceram, had emerged in Seremban district, Negeri Sembilan, following a workplace screening exercise and 171 positive cases were reported that day.

Another cluster was announced on Monday, Dec 7, namely Awan Lembah Construction Site cluster (involving Lembah Pantai and Titiwangsa) with 35 cases.

On Tuesday, two new clusters involving a workplace and construction site were announced. The first, Seruling cluster involving Klang, Hulu Selangor and Petaling districts, recorded 109 positive cases as of Tuesday and yesterday, the number soared to 842, thus accounting for a huge chunk of the 1,428 new COVID-19 infections reported in Selangor yesterday.

The second cluster, Bina Darul Construction Site involving Titiwangsa, Cheras and Lembah Pantai, recorded 14 cases on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Ikon Bintang Construction Site cluster was announced. It involved Lembah Pantai and Kepong and reported 12 cases.

COVID-19 CASES OVER NEXT FORTNIGHT

On Wednesday, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told a media briefing that the ministry expects the COVID-19 infectivity rate (R-naught or R0) to hover around 0.95 to 1.05 over the next two weeks up to Dec 23.

With this, daily new cases reported during this period are expected to be the range of 845 to 1,700.

On Tuesday, the R0 value was 0.96 and on that day Malaysia recorded 1,012 new cases. The next day, 959 new cases were reported while the R0 stood at 0.93/0.94.

R0 refers to the infectivity of a virus at the start of an outbreak within a community. Maintaining the COVID-19 R0 value below 1.0 will help in efforts to break the chain of infections in Malaysia.

As of today, a total of 407 clusters were recorded in the country, out of which 217 have ended and 190 are still being monitored. A total of 48 clusters have reported new cases, the clusters with the highest number being Sungai Putus cluster (369 cases), Rumah Merah cluster (150 cases) and D’Bajaru cluster (133 cases).

During the week under review (Dec 5-11), four new clusters were reported on Saturday, three on Sunday, two on Monday, two on Tuesday, four on Wednesday and five yesterday.

Meanwhile, 115 COVID-19 cases from the Jalan Genting cluster will be quarantined in the Pahang Sports Complex in Kuantan starting today. This cluster was among the eight new clusters announced on Dec 4 and it involves Titiwangsa district in Kuala Lumpur and Bentong district in Pahang. The index case was detected following a workplace screening.

DAILY CASES

Over the 24-hour period up to noon yesterday, Malaysia reported a whopping 1,810 new cases, the highest single-day figure ever reported since the start of the pandemic.

This brings the nation’s total COVID-19 cases to 80,309, putting Malaysia on the 80th spot in the list of countries affected by the pandemic. Singapore with its 58,305 cases is on the 86th spot.

Yesterday, Malaysia’s active cases numbered 12,734.

Following is the breakdown of daily new cases reported during the week under review: 1,123 (Saturday), 1,335 (Sunday) 1,600 (Monday), 1,012 (Tuesday) 959 (Wednesday), 2,234 (yesterday) and 1,810 (today).

Recoveries have been high too and the breakdown is as follows: 1,143 (Saturday), 1,069 (Sunday), 1,033 ( Monday), 1,750 (Tuesday), 1,068 (Wednesday), 1,112 (yesterday) and 937 (today).

Today three deaths were reported, bringing the nation’s COVID-19 death toll to 402. Currently, 123 patients are in the intensive care unit with 63 of them requiring respiratory aid.

TODAY’S BREAKDOWN OF CASES

Out of the 1,810 new cases reported by MOH today, Selangor accounted for 829 – a total of 616 cases were from clusters, including 390 from the new Sungai Putus cluster and Erima cluster, and eight imported cases.

Sabah accounted for 532 cases, 326 of which were from existing clusters; and Kuala Lumpur reported 132 cases, 96 of which were from clusters including one from the new Jalan Berangan Construction Site and one imported case.

Pahang recorded 96 cases; Johor 69 including eight from the new Langkasuka cluster and one imported case; Negeri Sembilan 64 including one from the new Jalan College cluster; Penang 34 including one from the new Sungai Keluang cluster.

Kedah recorded 22 cases, 20 of which were from existing clusters; Perak 12; Labuan eight; Melaka five; Kelantan two; Terengganu two; Putrajaya two; and Sarawak one.

SCREENINGS WIDENED

Following the sharp spike in COVID-19 cases among Top Glove factory workers in Klang since Nov 7, which led to over 5,000 of them getting infected by the coronavirus, the government directed all foreign workers to undergo screening.

The Social Security Organisation (Socso) was reported to have conducted screenings in six states, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, Negeri Sembilan, Penang and Sabah.

As a preparatory measure, the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre reopened the low-risk COVID-19 quarantine and treatment centre at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) on Dec 9.

This was announced by Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob who said that the centre will house non-Malaysian COVID-19 patients. Non-Malaysian patients from the Ministry of Health Training Institute in Sungai Buloh will also be shifted to MAEPS.

It was reported that 650 foreign workers who tested positive for COVID-19 were admitted to the centre on Dec 9. The centre has an estimated 10,000 beds and it was first activated on April 16. It was closed on July 15 following a drop in infections in Malaysia.

-- BERNAMA