KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) today reported seven new cases, marking the lowest daily rise since July 18.
The seven new cases today comprise four imported cases and three local transmissions. All of the three local transmissions, reported in Sabah, involved Malaysians. They were screened and tested positive for the coronavirus before undergoing surgery.
The four imported cases — which included a Malaysian and three foreign nationals — returned from Pakistan, Australia, Russia and Indonesia.
Following that, the active Covid-19 cases in the country continues to grow to 179.
Malaysia previously saw new daily cases being reported in the double digits since July 20, with the exception of nine Covid-19 cases confirmed on July 23.
In the 30th week since the first Covid-19 case was reported (July 19 to 25), a total of 120 new cases have been reported to the national Crisis Preparedness and Response Center (CPRC).
A total of three states — Sarawak (48 cases), Johor (29 cases) and Selangor (19 cases) — recorded the highest number of new coronavirus cases in that 30th epidemiological week.
On July 23 and 24, MOH sent a team led by the Deputy Director General of Health (Research and Technical Support) to Sarawak to review and help provide insights to handle the contagion, as well management of Covid-19 infections there.
The team consists of public health specialists, pathology experts, and other specialists. They have worked closely with teams from multi-disciplinary areas in the state of Sarawak.
As MOH previously reported, a new cluster involving a religious centre was detected on July 25, namely the Bukit Tiram Cluster in Johor.
This cluster involved a Roman Catholic church and religious activities in several other states. This cluster also involved an imported case from the Philippines. However, investigations are still being carried out to identify the index case and also the source of Covid-19 infection in this cluster.
As a proactive measure to prevent and curb the spread of Covid-19 infection, the Bukit Tiram cluster has been identified as one of the focused groups for MOH’s targeted approach, where contact tracing activities will be carried out immediately among all the close contacts and individuals who have attended the religious centre.
In addition, individuals who are at high risk or closely related to this group are also strongly encouraged to do self-testing for Covid-19.
“MOH calls for this group not to be isolated and stigmatised by the community. In fact, we should help and encourage them to come forward for screening. It is hoped that this will help curb Covid-19 transmission in our country,” Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.
A Covid-19 patient was discharged today, bringing the total recovered patients in the country to 8,601. No patients are being treated in the intensive care unit.
MOH also did not report any new Covid-19 death, with the coronavirus death toll in the country remaining at 124.
