Covid-19: Three new clusters detected today

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has detected three new Covid-19 clusters as the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) enters its 40th day today.

One of the three new Covid-19 clusters was the Kuala Lumpur Restaurant Cluster involving a restaurant in Brickfields here.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the cluster was detected following random sampling on the ground conducted by the health district office.

He said 250 people comprising 14 workers and 236 patrons of the restaurant had been screened for Covid-19 as of noon today.

“The ministry has collected samples from these 250 people. The result from the samples collected showed two of them are positive of Covid-19 while the rest in the cluster were tested negative for the virus,” said Dr Noor Hisham in a statement.

Both confirmed cases, he said, involved Indian nationals including the index case for the cluster, Case 8,666, and a close contact to the patient.

“The cause of the infection for this cluster is still under investigation,” he said.

The two other Covid-19 clusters detected by the ministry, he said, involved construction workers of a project in Sepang, which had been referred as the Sepang Kongsi House cluster.

A total of 96 people including 87 migrant workers from the cluster have been screened for Covid-19.

Of the total, Dr Noor Hisham said 63 of them are from Indonesia, 22 from Bangladesh, two Myanmar nationals and nine Malaysians.

“The results from the collected samples showed two were positive of Covid-19 while the remaining construction workers tested negative for the virus,” he said, adding that the migrants workers tested positive for Covid-19 included one Indonesian national, who is the index case for the cluster (Case 8,739), and another from Bangladesh.

The last cluster detected by the ministry involved fishermen which has been referred as the Kuching Jetty Cluster.

A total 25 fishermen have been screened as of noon today, in which, only two of them tested positive for Covid-19.

The remaining fishermen screened for Covid-19 tested negative for the virus.

“All confirmed cases from this cluster were foreigners including an Indonesian, Case 8,736, and the index case for the cluster.

“The other confirmed case from this cluster is the close contact to the Case 8,736 patient.” he said.

Source: NST