COVID-19 weekly round-up: Worksite screenings push up new case numbers

Today, 1,683 new infections were reported nationwide, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 90,816 and active cases to 15,140.

Globally, in the list of nations affected by the pandemic, Malaysia now occupies the 79th spot while China – where the deadly coronavirus outbreak was first reported at end-2019 – is on the 80th spot with 86,789 cases. Neighbouring country Singapore is at the 86th spot with 58,386 cases.

For the record, four-figure daily new cases were reported throughout the week under review (Dec 12-17): 1,937 (Saturday Dec 12), 1,229 (Sunday), 1,371 (Monday), 1,772 (Tuesday), 1,295 (Wednesday), 1,220 (Thursday) and today 1,683 .

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has linked the recent spike in cases in various states to large-scale screenings conducted by the Social Security Organisation or Socso, as well as employers in red zones beginning Dec 1.

Six states are involved in the screening exercises, namely Selangor, Penang, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and Labuan.

Starting Dec 1, the screenings were carried out in phases in certain districts such as Klang and Seremban, and on Dec 9 in red zones in other districts in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

Starting Dec 16, the screenings were done state-wide in Sabah and Labuan, and other districts in Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan.

According to MOH, several clusters involving foreign workers have been detected. These include the following construction site clusters: Rimbun (Negeri Sembilan), Cendana, Condong, Jalan Stadium, Laut, Matahari, Permai (Kuala Lumpur) and Jalan Bukit (Selangor).

Those who tested positive have been admitted to low-risk COVID-19 quarantine and treatment centres at Malaysian Agro Exposition Park Serdang in Selangor and Port Dickson Polytechnic in Negeri Sembilan, among others.

MOH expects the number of cases and new clusters to continue spiking in the coming weeks.

WORKPLACE CLUSTERS

MOH reported three workplace clusters on Saturday, Dec 12 – one in Tawau (Sabah), one involving Lembah Pantai, Titiwangsa and Cheras (Kuala Lumpur) and one in Gombak (Selangor).

On Sunday, there were six new clusters, four of which were related to worksites: one was in Labuan; one in Seremban; one involving Sepang, Gombak, Kuala Selangor and Hulu Selangor; and one in Kuantan.

On Monday, two new worksite clusters were reported, one involving Sepang, Kuala Selangor, Gombak, Petaling and Hulu Selangor, while the second was in Kepong.

No new clusters were detected on Tuesday but existing active clusters reported new cases with Damanlela construction site cluster recording the highest number at 568, followed by Tembok cluster (99) and Rimbun construction site cluster (27).

The Damanlela construction site cluster was announced on Nov 7 and it involves Lembah Pantai, Kepong and Titiwangsa in Kuala Lumpur. As of yesterday, it has recorded a total of 2,552 cases.

On Wednesday, eight new clusters were announced, out of which four were related to worksites: Puncak Galaksi cluster involving Kuala Selangor and Klang (56 cases); Permai cluster involving three construction sites in Lembah Pantai (48 cases); Matahari construction site cluster in Titiwangsa (15 cases); and Laut construction site cluster involving Lembah Pantai, Cheras and Kepong (eight cases).

Yesterday, three new clusters were reported, one involving a construction site in Lembah Pantai – Pasific cluster which reported 17 cases.

Today, six new clusters were announced, three of which involved worksites. They are Lebuh construction site cluster in Sepang district (Selangor) with 20 positive cases; Jalan Tengah construction site cluster in Lembah Pantai with 26 cases; and Persiaran Heights cluster in Seremban with 21 cases.

As of today, Malaysia has recorded 435 clusters of which 238 have ended.

A total of 197 active clusters are currently being monitored, with 60 of them reporting new cases.

RECOVERIES AND DEATHS

As for this week’s daily recovered cases, mostly four-digit figures were reported. Today, 1,214 patients were discharged, bringing the cumulative total of recovered cases to 75,244 (82.9 percent of total cases).

The breakdown is as follows: 1,309 cases (Sunday), 1,204 (Monday), 1,084 (Tuesday), 1,052 (Wednesday) and 1,297 (yesterday).

There were no fatalities today and Malaysia’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 432 (0.5 percent of total cases).

Following is the breakdown for this week’s death toll: Saturday nine cases, Sunday four, Monday four, Tuesday three, Wednesday seven and Thursday three.

As of today, 106 patients were in the intensive care unit with 51 requiring respiratory aid.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told a media conference on Wednesday that the COVID-19 infectivity rate (R-naught or R0 value) now stood at between 0.9 and 1.1.

He stressed that the value must drop to 0.5 or 0.3 in order to flatten the COVID-19 infection curve.

The R0 value refers to the infectivity of a virus at the start of an outbreak within the community.

TODAY’S COVID-19 CASE DETAILS

Selangor accounted for the highest number of new COVID-19 cases reported today. It had 692 cases, 175 of which were from existing clusters including three from the new Lebuh construction site cluster.

Sabah reported 260 cases, of which 47 were from existing clusters including five from the new Sugud cluster.

Kuala Lumpur recorded 197 cases and reported a new cluster, Jalan Tengah construction site cluster. Negeri Sembilan had 174 cases and 160 of them were from existing clusters including 20 from the new Persiaran Heights cluster.

Melaka reported 140 cases; Johor 77; Perak 65; Penang 37; Labuan 19; Pahang six; Putrajaya six; Kedah four; Terengganu four; Sarawak one; and Kelantan one.

GLOBAL COVID-19 STATISTICS

According to CoronaTracker (which cites figures from various agencies including the World Health Organisation), the total number of COVID-19 cases worldwide at the time of writing this article stood at 75,352,451 (70,835,550 cases at the same time last Friday) and 1,669,809 deaths (1,591,036 last Friday). The total number of recoveries stood at 52,910,196.

The United States continues to head the list of badly-hit nations with 17,627,070 cases (16,039,393 last Friday) and 317,929 deaths (299,692 last week).

India is on the second spot with 9,979,447 cases and 144,829 deaths.

Brazil is third with 7,111,527 cases and 184,876 fatalities. Russia is next with 2,791,220 cases and 49,762 deaths, followed by France with 2,427,316 cases and 59,619 deaths.

Another 68 countries have recorded cases exceeding 100,000. Following are nations with more than a million cases:

Turkey 1,955,680 cases (17,364 deaths), United Kingdom 1,948,660 (66,052), Italy 1,906,377 (67,220), Spain 1,805,633 (48,777), Argentina 1,524,372 (41,534), Colombia 1,468,795 (39,787), Germany 1,438,438 (25,165), Mexico 1,289,298 (116,487), Poland 1,171,854 (24,345) and Iran 1,138,530 (53,095).

Following are nations with more than 500,000 cases: Peru 991,518 (36,901), Ukraine 931,751 (15,996), South Africa 892,813 (24,011), Holland 652,525 (10,321), Indonesia 650,197 (19,930), Belgium 615,058 (18,278), Czechia 602,404 (10,036), Iraq 580,449 (12,650), Chile 578,732 (16,007) and Romania 577,446 (13,969).

Following are nations with more than 150,000 cases:

Bangladesh 496,975 (7,192), Canada 488,638 (13,916), Philippines 456,562 (8,850), Pakistan 448,522 (9,080), Morocco 409,746 (6,804), Switzerland 399,511 (6,487), Israel 367,975 (3,050), Portugal 362,616 (5,902), Saudi Arabia 360,516 (6,091), Sweden 357,466 (7,893), Austria 332,828 (4,982), Hungary 291,549 (7,538), Serbia 287,730 (2,482), Jordan 269,806 (3,496), Nepal 251,692 (1,749), Ecuador 204,249 (13,932), Panama 203,295 (3,481), Georgia 201,368 (1,953), United Arab Emirates 189,866 (629), Azerbaijan 191,460 (2,088), Bulgaria 188,288 (6,196), Japan 184,042 (2,688), Croatia 183,045 (2,870), Belarus 165,897 (1,291), Dominican Republic 157,306 (2,372) and Costa Rica 155,263 (1,967).

The remaining countries with cases exceeding 100,000 are:

Bolivia 148,665 (9,031), Kuwait 147,192 (913), Kazakhstan 144,523 (2,147), Slovakia 142,133 (1,378), Qatar 141,557 (242), Moldova 131,919 (1,674), Guatemala 131,919 (2,674), Greece 128,710 (3,948), Oman 127,019 (1,483), Denmark 123,813 (992), Egypt 123,701 (7,015), Ethiopia 118,481 (1,831), Palestine 117,755 (1,078), Honduras 115,317 (3,013), Tunisia 115,317 (4,032), Myanmar 113,082 (2,377), Venezuela 108,717 (970), Bosnia and Herzegovina 104,087 (3,549), Lithuania 103,028 (933) and Slovenia 102,043 (2,233).

China, where the outbreak was first reported at end-December 2019, is now on the 80th spot with 86,789 cases while its death toll remains unchanged at 4,634.

In Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia have joined the countries with more than 100,000 cases. Next is Myanmar with 111,900 cases (last Friday 104,487) and 2,346 deaths (2,201 last Friday).

Singapore now has 58,386 cases while its death toll is 29. Thailand has recorded 4,297 cases while its death toll remains at 60, followed by Vietnam with 1,407 cases and 35 deaths.

Cambodia’s cases rose to 362 and its death tally remains zero. There are no changes to Brunei’s tally of 141 cases and two deaths, and Laos’ 41 cases and zero fatality.

COVID-19 BACKGROUND

According to the WHO website, its China country office was informed of cases of pneumonia that were detected in Wuhan on Dec 31, 2019. On Jan 7, the Chinese authorities confirmed that the novel coronavirus can be transmitted from human to human.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-COV).

A study of the virus’ genetic sequence suggested similarities to that seen in snakes and bats. China health officials identified the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan as the source of the transmission of the coronavirus.

On Feb 11, WHO announced the official name of the virus, COVID-19, which is an acronym for coronavirus 2019 – CO stands for corona, VI for virus and D for disease.

On Jan 30, WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global emergency. By then, it had spread to 18 countries and caused 170 deaths. On March 11, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by WHO.

WHO has described the COVID-19 outbreak as much more dangerous than the A H1N1 Influenza, also known as Swine Flu.

Swine Flu, which occurred between January 2009 and August 2010, infected more than 1.6 million people and caused 18,449 fatalities.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s.