Covid-19: Six cases reported, two locally acquired

COVID-19 | Malaysia has reported six new cases of Covid-19 today, only two of which were locally-acquired infections.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said one of the local cases involved a Malaysian citizen undergoing workplace screening in Pahang.

The patient did not show symptoms of the disease and has been admitted to the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital, Kuantan.

The other local case was part of the MV Glen cluster in Selangor, which was named after a ship in Port Klang that is linked to the outbreak.

“The new case is the wife of a positive case reported on Aug 30, namely Case 9332. She was identified following active case detection and contact tracing,” Noor Hisham said in a statement today.

There are three cases in the cluster so far. The index case is a 50-year-old non-Malaysian crew member of the ship. Case 9286 was reported on Aug 25 as an imported case.

The second case, however, is classified as a locally-transmitted case. Case 9332 is a 41-year-old Malaysian citizen who was acting as an agent for the shipping company.

His newly infected wife, meanwhile, is 39 years old.

Noor Hisham said 58 people have been tested in the cluster so far, of which 16 tested negative and 39 are still pending results.

"Sign-on and sign-off screening are important and are some of the measures to monitor the nation’s borders to prevent Covid-19 from spreading into our country.

"The Health Ministry together with the Marine Department has taken various measures to monitor and strengthen the borders in Malaysian waters," he said.

Noor Hisham explained that monitoring activities include crew changes, beginning from the signing-on onto the ship until the crew signs off from the ship, as well as mandatory quarantine in quarantine stations gazetted by the government.

He added that the process will be monitored and improved continuously to ensure smooth implementation.

As for the four imported cases, Noor Hisham said three cases originated from Indonesia and one from Syria. All four are non-citizens.

The new cases bring Malaysia’s total number of Covid-19 cases to 9,360, while four cases have recovered and were discharged today.

This leaves Malaysia with 153 cases still active, of which four are being treated in intensive care units compared to five cases yesterday.