COVID-19 WEEKLY ROUND-UP
BY MELATI MOHD ARIFF
This is the weekly update on Covid-19 related matters in Malaysia from Dec 5 up to 12.30pm today. In Malaysia, case numbers have exceeded 78,000.
KUALA LUMPUR: The spike in daily new Covid-19 cases in Malaysia is expected to linger until the year-end largely due to wide-scale screening of workers since Dec 1, particularly those working in factories and at construction sites.
Various new clusters have already emerged from the screening exercises and some of them reported over 100 positive cases on the day they were announced by the Ministry of Health (MoH).
On Thursday, three new construction site clusters were reported, namely Jalan Bukit Construction Site cluster with 47 cases in Hulu Selangor, Selangor; Condong Construction Site cluster in Kuala Lumpur with 24 cases; and Jalan Stadium Construction Site cluster with 15 cases, also in Kuala Lumpur.
Last Saturday, Dec 5, the new Bulatan Construction Site cluster (involving Cheras, Titiwangsa and Lembah Pantai districts in Kuala Lumpur) recorded 163 positive cases.
Last Sunday, Dec 6, a new cluster, Ceram, had emerged in Seremban district, Negeri Sembilan, following a workplace screening exercise and 171 positive cases were reported that day.
Another cluster was announced on Monday, Dec 7, namely Awan Lembah Construction Site cluster (involving Lembah Pantai and Titiwangsa) with 35 cases.
On Tuesday, two new clusters involving a workplace and construction site were announced. The first, Seruling cluster involving Klang, Hulu Selangor and Petaling districts, recorded 109 positive cases as of Tuesday and yesterday, the number soared to 842, thus accounting for a huge chunk of the 1,428 new Covid-19 infections reported in Selangor yesterday.
The second cluster, Bina Darul Construction Site involving Titiwangsa, Cheras and Lembah Pantai, recorded 14 cases on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Ikon Bintang Construction Site cluster was announced. It involved Lembah Pantai and Kepong and reported 12 cases.
Cases over next fortnight
On Wednesday, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told a media briefing that the ministry expects the Covid-19 infectivity rate (R-naught or R0) to hover around 0.95 to 1.05 over the next two weeks up to Dec 23.
With this, daily new cases reported during this period are expected to be the range of 845 to 1,700.
On Tuesday, the R0 value was 0.96 and on that day Malaysia recorded 1,012 new cases. The next day, 959 new cases were reported while the R0 stood at 0.93/0.94.
R0 refers to the infectivity of a virus at the start of an outbreak within a community. Maintaining the Covid-19 R0 value below 1.0 will help in efforts to break the chain of infections in Malaysia.
On Thursday, a total of 401 clusters have been recorded in the country and 214 of them have ended. Currently, 187 clusters are active with 57 of them reporting new cases.
During the week under review (Dec 5-10), four new clusters were reported on Saturday, three on Sunday, two on Monday, two on Tuesday, four on Wednesday and five yesterday.
Meanwhile, 115 Covid-19 cases from the Jalan Genting cluster have been quarantined in the Pahang Sports Complex in Kuantan starting from yesterday. This cluster was among the eight new clusters announced on Dec 4 and it involves Titiwangsa district in Kuala Lumpur and Bentong district in Pahang. The index case was detected following a workplace screening.
Daily cases
Over the 24-hour period up to noon yesterday, Malaysia reported a whopping 2,234 new cases, the highest single-day figure ever reported since the start of the pandemic.
This brings the nation’s total Covid-19 cases to 78,499, putting Malaysia on the 80th spot in the list of countries affected by the pandemic. Singapore with its 58,297 cases is on the 86th spot.
As of Thursday, Malaysia’s active cases numbered 11,867.
Following is the breakdown of daily new cases reported during the week under review: 1,123 (Saturday), 1,335 (Sunday) 1,600 (Monday), 1,012 (Tuesday) 959 (Wednesday) and 2,234 (Thursday).
Recoveries have been high too and the breakdown is as follows: 1,143 (Saturday), 1,069 (Sunday), 1,033 (Monday), 1,750 (Tuesday), 1,068 (Wednesday) and 1,112(Thursday).
On Thursday, three deaths were reported, bringing the nation’s Covid-19 death toll to 396. Currently, 124 patients are in the intensive care unit with 60 of them requiring respiratory aid.
The past 48 hours
Out of the 2,234 new cases reported by MoH on Thursday, Selangor accounted for 1,428 – a total of 1,239 cases were from clusters, including the new Jalan Bukit Construction Site cluster.
Sabah accounted for 274 cases, 100 of which were from existing clusters; and Kuala Lumpur reported 136 cases, 104 of which were from clusters including 25 from the Condong and Jalan Stadium construction site clusters.
Perak recorded 115 cases with 111 cases contributed by existing clusters; and Johor had 100 cases, 61 of which were from existing clusters including nine from the Jalan Dalam and Tenun Merah clusters.
Negeri Sembilan reported 67 cases; Pahang 45; Penang 42; Kedah 14; Melaka five; Kelantan three; Terengganu three; Sarawak one; and Putrajaya one.
Screenings widened
Following the sharp spike in Covid-19 cases among Top Glove factory workers in Klang since Nov 7, which led to over 5,000 of them getting infected by the coronavirus, the government directed all foreign workers to undergo screening.
The Social Security Organisation (Socso) was reported to have conducted screenings in six states, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, Negeri Sembilan, Penang and Sabah.
As a preparatory measure, the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre reopened the low-risk Covid-19 quarantine and treatment centre at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) on Dec 9.
This was announced by Senior Minister (Security) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob who said that the centre will house non-Malaysian Covid-19 patients. Non-Malaysian patients from the Ministry of Health Training Institute in Sungai Buloh will also be shifted to MAEPS.
It was reported that 650 foreign workers who tested positive for Covid-19 were admitted to the centre on Dec 9. The centre has an estimated 10,000 beds and it was first activated on April 16. It was closed on July 15 following a drop in infections in Malaysia.
On Feb 11, WHO announced the official name of the virus, Covid-19, which is an acronym for coronavirus 2019 – CO stands for corona, VI for virus and D for disease.
On Jan 30, WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global emergency. By then, it had spread to 18 countries and caused 170 deaths. On March 11, Covid-19 was declared a pandemic by WHO.
WHO has described the Covid-19 outbreak as much more dangerous than the A H1N1 Influenza, also known as Swine Flu.
Swine Flu, which occurred between January 2009 and August 2010, infected more than 1.6 million people and caused 18,449 fatalities.
The International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economic recession caused by the Covid-19 pandemic will be worse – Bernama
