MoH identifies five more new clusters - Health D-G

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Health (MOH) has identified five new clusters today involving Sabah, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kelantan and Terengganu, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said two of the new clusters were in Sabah, with the Avenue Cluster involving the Penampang district whereby the index case was a construction site supervisor who was identified positive COVID-19 following a screening of symptomatic individuals on Nov 8.

He said the individual was admitted to the Sabah Educational Technology Division, COVID-19 Quarantine and Low Risk Treatment Centre.

As of today 12 noon, a screening of close contacts detected another 109 COVID-19 positive cases from 246 individuals screened.

In addition, he said in the same state, the index case for the Kejora Cluster in the Kota Kinabalu district was identified as COVID-19 positive following the screening of symptomatic individuals on Nov 9 and was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

‘’A screening of close contacts found eight more positive COVID-19 cases. Until Nov 17, 12 noon, 71 individuals were screened and nine were found positive while 62 were found negative,’’ he said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said the Kasah Cluster involved the Kepong district in Kuala Lumpur and all the cases were non-citizens who were subsequently admitted to the Sungai Buloh Hospital.

He said the cases for the Kasah cluster were identified COVID-19 positive following a screening of a high risk group, namely, workers at a security company today. As of 12 noon today, 19 cases were identified positive from 70 individuals screened.

The Summer Cluster involved the North East district, Penang with the index case identified as COVID-19 positive following the screenings of symptomatic individuals on Nov 10.

Screenings of close contacts detected 10 more positive cases and they had been admitted to the Penang Hospital.

‘’Until Nov 17, at 12 noon, 53 individuals had been screened with 38 found negative and four still waiting for results,’’ he said.

He said the Mengketil Cluster involved the Kota Bharu, Machang and Tanah Merah districts in Kelantan and the Besut district, Terengganu.

He said the index case was infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) and identified as positive COVID-19 on Nov 13.

The individual was admitted to the Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital, Kelantan and a screening of close contacts detected 23 more COVID-19 positive cases. A total 210 individuals had been screened with 164 found negative and 22 still waiting for results.

Dr Noor Hisham said five clusters were declared ended today, namely, Bangau-Bangau Cluster in Sabah, Tasik Cluster (Selangor and Sarawak), Olive Cluster (Selangor and Sabah), Buang Sayang Cluster (Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and Negeri Sembilan) and the Kau Sing Cluster (Sabah).

-- BERNAMA