COVID-19: Virus strain infecting Tawar Cluster still studied

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the COVID-19 infection from the Tawar Cluster was high and the laboratory was identifying the type of virus.

"We have taken a test or swab of the virus in the lab, and the lab will try to isolate the virus before we can culture and read the genomics of the virus.

"So the investigation is underway, but now we are not sure although we can suspect a change due to mutation but we cannot confirm yet," he told the daily press conference on the development of COVID-19 here, today.

Elaborating further, he said although no positive COVID-19 cases were detected from the Sivagangga PUI Cluster within the past two weeks, investigations and research on viruses infecting individuals from the cluster were still ongoing.

"Investigations and researches are still being conducted in the laboratory and so far three cases have been found to be positive for D614G mutations.

"If we look, these mutations only say there is a higher probability of infection but in terms of malignancy, the virus is more or less the same and there are no complications in terms of treatment," he said.

The Tawar Cluster, which is mostly concentrated in Mukim Tawar, Kedah, is the largest cluster at the moment with the first case of the cluster being a local man who is also a trader.

The man is said to have a history of attending religious ceremonies commemorating the death of a family member which took place from July 31 to August 1.

To date, the Tawar Cluster has recorded 70 positive cases and six of them are being treated at the Intensive Care Unit.

As of 12 noon today, 3,547 people had been screened in this cluster, namely, 3,018 people in Kedah, 518 people in Penang and 11 people in Perak.

Asked about the five new cases in the Tawar cluster, all of which involved primary school students and were close contacts of the 9197th case, he said MOH was still conducting screening and related investigations.

"The school has been closed and we are investigating the possibility of the infection from mother to child and the child has friends at the same school, so that is the third generation, not the first," he said.

Meanwhile, regarding the report saying that children have the potential to become COVID-19 silent super spreaders, Dr Noor Hisham said so far MOH had not detected the matter in this country.

"So far we have not seen children become active spreaders in certain clusters...," he said.

"What is certain is that our action if we identify the child has symptoms is to do isolation and also ensure that public health interventions are implemented as soon as possible," he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said the early termination of the Targeted Enhanced Movement Control Order (TEMCO) in two villages in Perlis and four mukims in Kedah from tomorrow was due to no positive cases detected within more than two weeks of implementation.

"We terminate it because the second test has been conducted and all were found to be negative for over a period of 14 days which is the incubation period," he said, adding that regular monitoring would be carried out by MOH.

TEMCO in both areas were due to end on August 31.

During the press conference, Dr Noor Hisham also announced that four more clusters had been closed for surveillance and monitoring today after no new cases and deaths were reported in 28 days, bringing the total number of clusters ended to 89.