KUALA LUMPUR, June 2 — Health authorities reported 20 new Covid-19 cases today, dropping from 38 yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of cases in the country to 7,877 so far.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said out of the 20 new cases, 15 were imported cases while five were local. Out of the five local transmission cases, three involved foreigners and two were Malaysians.
This marks the lowest locally transmitted cases since the Covid-19 outbreak began in Malaysia. Before this, the Ministry of Health (MOH) recorded nine local transmissions twice, on May 5 and 27.
MOH also reported zero deaths today, leaving the death toll in Malaysia at 115.
Health authorities said the first case of a newly identified cluster of six Covid-19 cases at an apartment in Cheras involved a tahfiz student, who was detected from the screening of tahfiz school students by MOH and the Islamic Development Department (Jakim).
However, MOH reported, the investigation showed that none of the students, teachers or staff from that tahfiz school in relation to the Cheras flat cluster had a history of attending the Sri Petaling tabligh gathering.
So far, out of the six cases detected in this cluster, three involved occupants of the apartment, whereas the remaining three were from outside.
The cases were detected through an active case detection method. The identified positive cases were among family members and friends of the first detected Covid-19 patient from the Cheras cluster.
“There is a possibility of virus transmission due to visiting activities before and during Hari Raya festival,” said Dr Noor Hisham.
“Further investigation and screening process involving the close contacts of all six Covid-19 patients from Cheras cluster has been conducted,” he added.
MOH reported that a total of 120 screenings have been conducted, with six positive cases and 76 negative cases. A total of 38 people are still waiting for their result.
Apart from active case detection, several other measures have also been taken in that apartment to control virus transmission.
“Separation of contacts and sampling activities, disinfection activities, dissemination of information to prevent virus transmission have been conducted there,” said the Health DG.
He added that a prisoner from Sg Buloh Prison who tested positive for the coronavirus has been transferred to the Semenyih immigration detention centre, while health authorities are screening one particular block at the jail.
Today, 66 patients were discharged from hospital bringing the total recovered patients to 6,470. So far, 1,292 patients are still receiving treatment in hospitals from Covid-19 in the country.
Currently, there are six patients being treated at intensive care units, with two under ventilator support.
