PUTRAJAYA, Oct 20 — The third Covid-19 wave, which has seen a surge in cases in Selangor since the end of September, is due to the influx of returnees from Sabah, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.
He said the first cluster reported in Selangor was the Jalan Apas Cluster on Sept 28, involving families returning from Sabah.
He said the increase in local transmissions in Selangor became evident from October 2 and has continued to record consistent increase until today.
“Of the 26 active clusters recorded in Selangor, eight clusters are related to travelers returning from Sabah.
“The daily increase in new cases and clusters in Selangor is also due to the population density and high movement rate,” he told a media conference on Covid-19 developments at the Health Ministry (MoH) here today.
On new Covid-19 cases in the state, Dr Noor Hisham said there was an increase of 132 positive cases today, bringing the total number of positive cases in Selangor to 3,489 cases.
He said 84 of the new cases were from existing clusters including eight cases from clusters related to returnees from Sabah.
As for the 26 active clusters in Selangor, he said 18 of them were local infection clusters including nine closely related to transmissions in the workplace while one cluster was linked to a public shopping mall.
“The Utama cluster is the largest Covid-19 cluster in Selangor at the moment with a total of 194 positive cases,” he said.
In another development, Dr Noor Hisham said yet another cluster had been detected in Kota Belud, Sabah, known as the Kertang cluster.
He said the index case for the cluster (case 17623) was admitted to the Covid-19 Quarantine and Treatment Center at the Taman Seri Bayu People’s Housing Project, Kota Belud after which 19 more positive cases were detected through close contact screening.
“As of Oct 20, a total of 216 individuals have been screened with 20 positive cases detected,” he said.
— Bernama
