Passenger on KL-Kuching flight among 16 new Covid-19 cases

CORONAVIRUS | A passenger on a Kuala Lumpur-Kuching flight was among the 16 new Covid-19 cases reported today.

The passenger was the second person on the same flight to have been infected with Covid-19.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this new cluster was referred to as the PUI (Person Under Investigation) Melbourne cluster after the first case which involved a Malaysian student who returned from Melbourne, Australia.

Noor Hisham said the student, referred to as Case 8749, had taken a flight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur on July 15 and subsequently another flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching.

The student was placed under quarantine on arrival in Kuching and was found to be positive with Covid-19 on July 17. The student, who was asymptomatic, had been admitted to the Sarawak General Hospital.

"Following this, an investigation and active case detection were conducted. Another positive case was detected within the cluster.

"This second case had taken the same flight from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching as the index case," Noor Hisham said in a statement.

The director-general said 21 people from the flight and related conveyances have been tested and were awaiting results.

"The source of infection is being investigated," he added.

The infected passenger who was on the same flight as the Melbourne student was considered as a local transmission even though the first infection was an imported case.

Second teacher in Sarawak infected 

Another six local transmissions were mostly from existing clusters, namely the Stutong cluster (three), Sentosa cluster (one), a close contact of Case 8,695, and a man who was detected through random testing of teachers returning to work. All of them were in Sarawak.

According to the Sarawak disaster management committee, the teacher had taken the Kota Bharu-Kuching flight on July 4 and was found to be positive with Covid-19 yesterday.

He was the second teacher to be found positive with Covid-19 in Sarawak as schools reopened.

Putrajaya began reopening schools on June 24 for students facing examinations and the rest began returning to school in phases on July 15, with a full reopening today.

However, the Sarawak government had decided to postpone the resumption of school to Aug 3 for three districts, namely Kuching, Padawan, and Samarahan.

The eighth local transmission, which was also the sole non-citizen, involved a foreigner who had been tested in Selangor before leaving the country.

Active Covid-19 clusters climb to 21

As for the eight imported cases, they comprised six Malaysians and six non-citizens who were travelling from India (two), Russia (two), Saudi Arabia (one), China (one), Indonesia (one), and South Korea (one).

Three of the imported cases today were part of the new Hyde Park cluster, named after a ship docked at Port Klang where the Covid-19 outbreak had taken place.

Previously, it was reported that a Russian citizen on the ship, who had a travel history to Egypt and India, had become infected with Covid-19.

Noor Hisham said 24 people on the ship were screened and so far only the four had come back positive with Covid-19 while the other 20 were negative.

He said there was no risk of spread to the community from this cluster as they were confined to the ship.

The 16 new infections today brought the cumulative cases to 8,831, of which 8,566 have recovered. This includes four additional recoveries recorded today.

The number of active cases has also increased to 142, up from 130 yesterday.

Of those under treatment, five are in the intensive care unit of which one needs a ventilator.

The new PUI Melbourne and Hyde Park clusters mean the country now has 21 active Covid-19 clusters.

- Mkini