MB claims 80pct of Covid-19 cases in Selangor involve factories

 

Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari claimed that nearly all Covid-19 cases in the state can be attributed to workplace clusters, seemingly contradicting Health Ministry data.

“We are aware and should acknowledge that a large number of cases come from workplace clusters.

“Based on the latest data and figures, 91 percent of cases in Selangor are transmitted at work, namely 80 percent at industrial clusters, and 11 percent at construction site clusters.

“This equates to 125 clusters in the two sectors,” he said at the launch of the state’s "Vaksin Selangor" (Selvax) initiative today.

However, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah previously said most Covid-19 cases in Malaysia are now sporadic cases, rather than being traceable to a particular cluster.

This is in contrast to earlier waves of the pandemic where a large portion of cases was linked to clusters.

In a statement on June 21, Noor Hisham said 398,846 out of 578,105 Covid-19 cases (69 percent) recorded in Malaysia from Jan 1 to June 19 were classified as sporadic cases.

Selangor recorded the highest number of sporadic cases of all states, comprising 151,725 out of 194,062 cases (78 percent) recorded during the period. This would mean only 22 percent of cases in the state can be attributed to other sources such as clusters or imported cases.

More recently, International Trade and Industry Minister Azmin Ali quoted Health Ministry data in saying that only five to 10 percent of Covid-19 cases are from the manufacturing sector. This appears to the referring to national data, rather than infections in Selangor alone.

He also quoted Health Ministry data in claiming that only 25 percent of Covid-19 cases are from clusters, while the remaining 75 percent are not from clusters. - Mkini