Current COVID-19 cases are those infected before, during Aidilfitri - Dr Adham

Dr Adham said Malaysia recorded 40 religious clusters where 19 were detected in Johor, Selangor (13) while eight more were found in Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Kelantan.

"Religious clusters emerged during the fasting month and Hari Raya Aidilfitri and proliferate due to mobilisation of people. If we can reduce mobilisation, we can reduce virus transmission," he told reporters at the virtual press conference on the development of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme with its Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin here today.

He also called on the people to implement self-lockdown to break the COVID-19 chain as this method has proved successful in other countries.

Meanwhile, Dr Adham said a total of 38,785 COVID-19 cases were reported from May 16 to May 22 with an average of 5,541 cases a day.

"A total of 333 deaths were reported during the week with an average of 48 deaths per day," he said, adding workplace and community clusters also recorded an increase within the period.

In another development, Dr Adham said so far, no COVID-19 vaccine injection recipients had to receive intensive treatment in hospitals due to the vaccine's side effects.

He said there have been cases of serious side effects experienced by recipients detected by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency as well as through the MySejahtera application since the implementation of the vaccination exercise in February, however, the number is small at 0.1 per cent of 1,000 doses.

"They have received treatment and have been discharged from the hospital. They don't need long-term hospitalisation," he added.

Dr Adham said a large number of those who were found to have side effects after taking their COVID-19 jabs only experienced mild side effects such as pain at the injection site, headache and fatigue that are normally experienced by vaccine recipients.

Previously, he was reported as saying that about 99.5 per cent of the 25,770 recipients who experience side effects of the COVID-19 injection were found to have mild side effects while the remaining cases required treatment and observation by health specialists.