THE Health Ministry reported five new Covid-19 clusters today, while the Sungai cluster that went on to infect 101 people in Kedah and Perlis has been declared inactive.

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a presser today the new clusters bring the number of active clusters in the country to 138.

These clusters were discovered in Sabah, Labuan, Negri Sembilan, Sarawak and Putrajaya.

As for the Sungai cluster, which originated from a private hospital in Kedah, Noor Hisham said it was declared as inactive following zero new cases.

“As of today, a total of 25,406 people were screened. Of this, there were 101 people who were confirmed as positive for Covid-19 and the remaining 25,305 tested negative,” he said.

The cluster also saw one death.

The first cluster, known as PTS Tawau, was discovered at a temporary detention centre in Tawau after the index case was tested positive after experiencing symptoms.

Close contacts screening led to the discovery of another 103 cases, bringing the cumulative total number of cases in the cluster to 104.

All patients have been admitted to the Tawau Hospital. As of noon today, 1,671 individuals were screened, of whom 104 tested negative. The remaining 1,567 individuals are still waiting for their results.

Meanwhile, the Tenaga Cluster in the Batu Arang zone in Labuan was detected following the targeted screening of high-risk communities on November 2.

All 57 positive cases have been admitted to the Labuan Hospital.

The Gedong cluster, on the other hand, has spread across state lines to Seremban, Port Dickson dan Rembau in Negeri Sembilan, Petaling in  Selangor,  Johor Baharu in Johor, and Putrajaya.

Twelve positive cases were detected in this cluster.

Like the Gedong cluster, the Wisma Saberkas cluster in Kuching, Sarawak and Seridana in Putrajaya also stemmed from index cases who were symptomatic. – November 2, 2020.