MALAYSIA recorded four new Covid-19 clusters today, taking the total number of active clusters in the country to 123, said Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said 37 clusters of the total 123 are reporting new cases daily.

The Health Ministry recorded 250 new cases in these 37 clusters, he added.

The total cumulative cases as of today in these 37 clusters stand at 7,637.

The four new clusters are named Seri Gaya, Greenhill, Idaman and Bayu, all of which account for 61 cases.

The Seri Gaya cluster involves Kota Kinabalu and Tuaran in Sabah.

Of the 64 people screened in the cluster, 17 tested positive, 47 negative while one is awaiting results.

In the Greenhill cluster, which involves Kuching and Miri in Sarawak, 51 people have been screened.

Of them, 25 tested positive while the rest are awaiting results.

The Idaman cluster involved two states – the Petaling and Gombak districts in Selangor and the Titiwangsa and Cheras districts in Kuala Lumpur – with 481 people screened.

Eleven tested positive, negative (300) and awaiting results (170).

The final cluster is the Bayu cluster, which involves Johor Baru and Muar in Johor.

Eight positive cases have been reported of the 104 screened in the cluster.

Sixty individuals tested negative and 36 are awaiting test results.

Since the onset of the pandemic, Malaysia has reported 234 clusters, of which 111 have ended.

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said that the infectivity rate, or R-naught (R0) value, in the country dropped from 1.2 yesterday to 1.1 today.

He said the R0 was at 2.2 at the start of the third wave, which began on September 20, and has shown improvement.

He cited the conditional movement-control order (CMCO) in four states as the reason for the drop.

However, he also reiterated that it would take two to four weeks to see a substantial drop in the R0 value. – October 28, 2020.