18 New Covid 19 Cases Four New Clusters Detected

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CORONAVIRUS | The Health Ministry recorded 18 new Covid-19 positive cases as of noon today
Director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement that 10 were imported cases involving seven Malaysians who returned home and three foreigners who were allowed to enter the country for business affairs
"From the eight locally transmitted cases, six of them are Malaysians while two others are foreigners
"Of the six Malaysians, four of them were tested positive in Sarawak while two others were detected in Terengganu," he added
Noor Hisham also announced that the ministry has detected four new Covid-19 infection clusters - "PUI Pitakwa Cluster", "PUI Shirala Cluster", "Kuching Medical Centre Cluster" and "Jupiter Cluster"
On the PUI Pitakwa Cluster, Noor Hisham said the index case was a Malaysian who returned from Nigeria on July 11 who tested negative upon arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport
However, three days later, the returnee had to take another test for Covid-19 detection after developing symptoms of the coronavirus. He was then tested positive and admitted to the Hulu Terengganu Hospital
Following this, the ministry traced a total of 44 close contacts of the patient, of whom two have been tested positive, two others were negative while the remaining 39 are still awaiting their test results
Noor Hisham said the PUI Shirala Cluster involved a foreigner who arrived from India on July 6 for work purposes and was also found negative when tested upon arrival at KLIA
Covid-19 testing (file pix)The traveller started developing symptoms five days after arrival and was admitted to the Sungai Buloh Hospital after being tested positive
Contact tracing led authorities to two persons, one of whom was also tested positive and has since been warded
The Kuching Medical Centre Cluster, meanwhile, was traced to a healthcare worker, who was tested positive during a screening on July 14 and has since been admitted to the Sarawak General Hospital
A colleague of the frontliner at the medical centre has since been tested positive during contact tracing activities by the Health Ministry
The fourth infection group -- the Jupiter Cluster -- involved a non-Malaysian who works as a sailor on board a ship which has a history of visits to Japan and Singapore
The patient started showing symptoms on July 3 and his condition worsened on July 11 when the ship was in Malaysian waters off Sarawak
A test returned positive and the sailor was then admitted to the Bintulu Hospital
Contact tracing of 29 close contacts found that two other sailors were also positive for Covid-19 while the rest were negative. - Mkini

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