New Johor cluster pushes daily Covid-19 cases to highest in a month

CORONAVIRUS | A new Covid-19 cluster discovered at an old folks home in Kluang, Johor, has pushed the number of daily infections in the country to its highest level in a month.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham said the country today recorded 21 new cases, 13 of which are from the old folks home in Kluang.

The number of cases today is the highest in 30 days. The last time the country recorded the same figure or higher was on June 20.

The 13 new cases at the old folks home involved 12 Malaysians and one non-citizen.

Noor Hisham said the new cluster was discovered after a 72-year-old man was brought dead-on-arrival to Hospital Enche' Besar Hajjah Khalsom on July 17. He was reported as the 123rd Covid-19 death yesterday.

Following the incident, active case detection was initiated where 39 people have since been screened. 14 tested positive for Covid-19 (including the fatality yesterday), 18 were negative and seven are pending results.

He said the 14 comprised 11 elderly residents, one worker and one family member.

The Kluang old folks home is the 17th Covid-19 cluster to happen since the start of the recovery Movement Control Order (MCO) which began on June 10, where most parts of the country's economy and services began to reopen.

The 13 new cases at the Kluang old folks home were part of the 15 local transmissions recorded today.

The remaining two local transmissions involve a Malaysian and a non-citizen who were both detected during pre-surgery screening in Negeri Sembilan and Johor, respectively.

As for the six imported cases, they involved four Malaysians and two non-citizens returning from the Philippines (3), India (1), Russia (1) and Denmark (1).

The new cases today meant there are now 122 active Covid-19 cases, but this was mitigated with two new recoveries.

To date, Malaysia has recorded 8,800 in cumulative cases, 8,555 or 97.2 percent of which have recovered.

Noor Hisham said among the 122 under treatment, three are in the intensive care unit of which one needs a ventilator to breathe. No new death was reported.

The uptick in cases prompted Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to remind Malaysians in a televised address not to let their guard down against Covid-19 and warned that the country could go back into lockdown if the situation deteriorates.