THE authorities are locking down Aman Jaya in Kedah after a risk assessment of the Tawar cluster showed that positive case distribution was not concentrated in one locality and that the state’s two virus clusters, Tawar and Sivaggangga, likely shared a common source of infection.

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said virus samples from the two clusters showed the same D614G mutation and that the virus was of the same clade.

“The Tawar case distribution is not concentrated in one locality only; it is a relatively a densely populated area and there is high mobility movement within and between areas. 

“Also, if there is the D614G mutation, it means a high infectivity rate,” he said.

It was announced today that starting at midnight, an enhanced movement control order will be in effect in Melor, Mawar and Kenanga in Aman Jaya.

It is hoped that the lockdown would prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Noor Hisham said this evening at a press conference in Putrajaya. 

Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said earlier that health officials will screen 22,360 people in Aman Jaya for infection.

There were no new cases reported today in the Tawar cluster, which has 73 infections, 63 of them in Kedah and the rest in neighbouring Penang.

Noor Hisham said the rate of infection, known as the R0, had risen to 0.74 yesterday from  0.58 on August 4.

A constant score of below 1 will break the infection chain, he said. – August 27, 2020.