KUCHING, April 28: Five new Covid-19 cases in Malaysia have been linked to two clusters in Sarawak, reveals the Ministry of Health today.
Ministry of Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said: “The ministry has identified four cases linked to the church gathering, making it a total of 170 cases and three deaths from this cluster. Another positive case is linked to the healthcare worker cluster, making it a total of 53 cases from there.”
Speaking at the ministry’s daily Covid-19 briefing and press conference in Putrajaya, Dr Noor Hisham added that apart from the Chow Kit Market cluster in Kuala Lumpur which recorded one new case, the rest of the clusters nationwide recorded zero new cases today.
Meanwhile, he acknowledged that Malaysia was nine days late in acting on the Sri Petaling tabligh congregation.
“We only knew about the gathering on March 9 when a participant from Brunei tested positive for the virus. I was informed by our Brunei counterpart about the gathering on the night of March 9, so we acted nine days too late,” Dr Noor Hisham said.
He added that by then, the majority of the participants had returned to their respective hometowns or villages.
He also pointed out that the Sri Petaling tabligh congregation that was held from Feb 28 to March 1 was responsible for almost 40 per cent (2,155 cases) of the country’s 5,851 Covid-19 infection cases.
To-date, the ministry has tested 32,122 individuals under the Sri Petaling tabligh cluster. — DayakDaily
