COVID-19 weekly round-up: Sudden spike in cases unsettling

Out of today’s cases, 181 were local infections and one imported.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) said in a statement today that 167 of the cases were from the Benteng cluster in Sabah and 14 from the Sungai and Telaga clusters in Kedah.

Yesterday, in reference to the recent spike in new cases, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had said that the "burning embers have to be doused before it turns into a raging fire".

He said if the situation becomes more critical, the MOH’s chances of “controlling the fire” will become slimmer. This will lead to a sharp spike in cases and fatalities, similar to what is happening in other countries.

On Tuesday (Sept 8), new cases swelled to 100. Over the weekend (Sept 5 and 6), only six cases were reported respectively. On Monday, the number rose to 62, Wednesday 24 and yesterday 45.

Dr Noor Hisham is also clearly worried about the current COVID-19 R-naught (R0) value which stood at 2.34 on Wednesday and fell to 1.78 yesterday.

An R0 greater than one means that the virus will likely keep spreading.

He had earlier explained that the emergence of new clusters has caused the R0 to rise. The R0 refers to the infectivity rate of a virus at the start of an outbreak within a community.

On Aug 26, the R0 stood at 0.74 but by Sept 8, it had climbed to 1.72. The steep increase is indicative of the high risk of transmissions in the community.

Before the enforcement of the Movement Control Order on March 18, the R0 value was 3.55. According to Dr Noor Hisham, an R0 of less than one for a continuous period will help to break the chain of COVID-19 infections in Malaysia.

With the 182 new cases reported over the 24-hour period up to noon today, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia now stood at 9,810 and active cases at 501.

Today’s local transmissions comprised 90 citizens and 91 non-citizens. Eleven cases were from the Sungai cluster and three from the Telaga cluster.

The remaining local cases (167) were from the Benteng LD cluster, with 91 of them involving non-citizens.

Today, 14 patients were discharged, bringing the total number of recoveries to 9,181 (93.6 per cent of total cases).

Nine patients are currently being treated in the intensive care unit with five requiring respiratory aid. The death toll remained at 128 (1.30 per cent of total cases).

As of today, there were three active clusters, namely Benteng LD (Lahad Datu and Tawau), Sungai (Kedah, Penang and Perlis) and Telaga (Kedah and Penang).

Benteng LD-Tawau cluster: 2,067 individuals have been screened, out of which 250 tested positive and 625 negative while 1,192 are still awaiting results.

Benteng LD (Lahad Datu) cluster: 770 have been screened out of which 87 tested positive, 291 negative and 392 still awaiting results.

Sungai cluster: 2,037 have been screened; 50 tested positive (11 new cases) and 1,408 negative; and 579 are still awaiting results.

In Penang itself, 122 individuals have been screened and all tested negative. In Perlis, out of the 11 screened, one tested positive and six negative while four are still waiting for their results.

Telaga cluster: a total of 4,766 individuals have been screened. In Kedah, out of the 4,718 screened, 16 tested positive and 4,610 negative while 92 are still waiting for their results. In Penang, all 48 individuals screened tested negative.

Following the hike in cases in the Sungai and Telaga clusters, the government has implemented the administrative Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) in 28 mukim in Kota Setar, Kedah, starting at 12.01 am yesterday until Sept 25.

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the Malaysia-Thai border at Bukit Kayu Hitam will also be closed until the EMCO ends.

Administrative EMCO has also been enforced at Tawau Prison from Sept 11 to 25.

Meanwhile, beginning Sept 7, the Malaysian government has imposed entry restrictions on 23 countries that have registered more than 150,000 COVID-19 cases.

The list of nations includes the United States, Brazil, India, Russia, Peru, Colombia, South Africa, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Iran, United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, France, Turkey, Italy, Germany, Iraq, Philippines and Indonesia.

The travel restrictions, however, do not apply to diplomats and their families, expatriates and skilled workers.

Between April 3 and Sept 9, a total of 119,268 travellers entered Malaysia. Out of this number, 995 tested positive for COVID-19 – 742 when they were screened upon arrival and 253 after they underwent the second screening on the 13th day of their quarantine.