KUALA LUMPUR : A new cluster has been detected at a market in Stutong, Sarawak and it was identified as Stutong Cluster, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
According to him, 218 hawkers in the area had been screened comprising 213 Malaysians and five foreigners comprising China nationals (three), one Indonesian and one Vietnamese.
He said from the total screenings, 56 people were sampled and two positive COVID-19 cases were detected while the remaining 54 were negative.
“ The cluster was discovered from COVID-19 screenings of market hawkers identified as one of the target groups under the targeted approach.
“The market has been temporarily closed to carry out preventive measures and infection control such as cleanliness and decontamination exercises. The source of the cluster is still under investigation,” he said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, on the latest status of the Mambong Cluster, Dr Noor Hisham said a total of five positive COVID-19 cases were reported from 70 individuals screened in the cluster as at 12 noon today.
“Sixty five people are still waiting for results. The cluster involved Malaysians and a Filipino who is the cluster index case (Case No. 8732),” he said and added that the source of the infection in the cluster was still being investigated.
In this regard, Dr Noor Hisham said 96 people who returned home today via a Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) mission to bring back stranded Malaysians from New Delhi, India were healthy and did not have symptoms.
They were placed at a monitoring centre at the Higher Education Leadership Academy in Enstek, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan for 14 days as mandatory quarantine.
“It was conducted at a designated monitoring centre and not as Home Surveillance Order, as the group had returned from a country with very high risk of COVID-19 infection.
“Health monitoring was carried out by personnel from Seremban Health Office and health screening would be conducted twice a day to ensure they are really healthy and can be allowed to go out after the monitoring period,” he said.
He explained that the Health Ministry would continue monitoring their health from time to time.
The group comprising 72 men and 24 women has undergone health screening by healthy personnel at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) entry point.
Nasopharyngeal swab samples had been taken at KLIA entry point for COVID-19 detection laboratory test for 88 people (eight family members of an embassy employee were tested before leaving India and were found COVID-19 negative).
All 96 Malaysians landed at KLIA at 6.31 am, had earlier boarded a Malindo flight from New Delhi with 11 crew members.
— BERNAMA
