CORONAVIRUS | The Health Ministry recorded 21 new Covid-19 cases as of noon today, including six found to be locally transmitted.
According to the ministry, three of the local transmissions were linked to the Sivagangga cluster, which started from the owner of a nasi kandar restaurant in Jitra, Kedah.
The three other local cases were recorded in Sabah (two) and Johor. These included two cases detected during pre-surgery screenings, each at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu and Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor Bahru.
With the 21 new infections, the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country increased to 9,023.
"The number of active cases with the ability to infect others is now at 196. All of them have been isolated and given due treatment," Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement.
Of the 15 imported cases, 12 are Malaysians who recently returned from Yemen.
Three others involved Malaysians returning from Papua New Guinea, Ivory Coast and the United Kingdom, respectively.
"All the import cases were traced in Kuala Lumpur. They had been isolated at quarantine centres upon arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and thus did not pose an infection risk to locals.
"The implementation of strict border control is important to prevent local transmissions of Covid-19 brought from outside," he added.
Meanwhile, there were two positive patients admitted to the intensive care unit, up from zero yesterday.
The death toll remains at 125, as there were no new fatalities reported.
Sivagangga cluster cases are second generation
Noor Hisham (below) said that all three new cases from the Sivagangga cluster recorded today were detected through close contact screening.
They were the cluster's second generation of infections.
"Two of the cases are the children of Patient 9,000. One of them had shown symptoms of respiratory tract infection on July 30, but did not seek treatment from any healthcare facility.
"The third case is a close contact of Patient 8,976. The case had shown symptoms of fever and respiratory tract infection on Aug 2, before seeking treatment at the Taman Selasih Health Clinic in Kulim," he said.
All three were tested positive yesterday and had since been admitted to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital.
The ministry had so far screened a total of 1,647 individuals linked to the cluster.
From the number, a total of 24 had been tested positive, 754 came back negative, while 869 others are still awaiting test results.
Those found positive included 19 Malaysians and five non-citizens.
The Sivagangga cluster was traced back to the owner of a nasi kandar restaurant in Napoh, Jitra, Kedah who returned from Sivagangga, India on July 13 but failed to comply with the home quarantine order.
Based on the ministry's statement, it is understood that the two siblings recorded positive today are the children of a restaurant patron who began experiencing symptoms on Hari Raya Aidiladha (July 31) but did not seek treatment.
The patron only informed authorities that he had close contact with the restaurant owner a day later, after he was involved in festive celebrations.
The emergence of the cluster and the increasing number of new cases had forced the authorities to implement a targeted enhanced movement control order, or semi-lockdown, on four localities in Kedah.
State authority added another measure today to prevent the spread of Covid-19 there by banning all open markets in Kubang Pasu and Padang Terap.
According to Harian Metro, the ban was announced by Kedah state exco in charge of health and local government, Mohd Hayati Othman, during a press conference earlier.
He said the ban, effective until Aug 30, covered night markets, morning markets, and other similar types that operate under the supervision of the Kubang Pasu and Padang Terap local authorities.
"These open markets are not allowed to operate in these districts because their operators move from one district to another.
"If we do not issue this order, it can risk the spread of the virus to other districts," he was quoted as saying by the Malay daily.
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