SEVEN out of nine new Covid-19 clusters identified by the Health Ministry today were related to workplaces, said Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The director-general of health said 290 cases were recorded in today’s nine new clusters, adding that the seven workplaces clusters contributed to 257 cases, or 88% of them.

The first workplace cluster is called Taman Tasik Sungai Chua, and involves a supermarket in Taman Tasik Sungai Chua, in Hulu Langat, Selangor.

Noor Hisham said 60 people have tested positive for the virus from 147 screened.

The second workplace cluster, Segamaha Complex, involved a palm oil plantation in Kinabatangan, Sabah.

Noor Hisham said the index case tested positive for Covid-19 on January 16.

A total of 250 people have been screened and 58 returned positive.

The third workplace cluster is called Bukit Bendera, and spreads over Kota Kinabalu, Papar and Beaufort in Sabah. 

This cluster involved a public institute, which is located in Jalan Bukit Bendera, Kota Kinabalu.

From 100 people screened here, 20 are positive for Covid-19.

The Jalan Nipah construction site in Titiwangsa, Kuala Lumpur, is the next workplace cluster detected. 

Noor Hisham said as of today, 517 people have been screened and 29 have tested positive.  

The next cluster also involves a construction site and is named as Era Duta construction. 

This cluster was detected in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur, and 20 out of 420 screened here were positive for Covid-19. 

The sixth workplace cluster is Jalan TJ in the district of Seremban, Negri Sembilan. 

This cluster involves a factory in Tuanku Jaafar Industrial Park. The index case for this cluster tested positive on January 7.  

As of today, 129 people have been screened and 39 tested positive.  

The final workplace cluster reported today is called Genting Café. 

This cluster was detected at a recreational centre in Genting Highlands, Bentong, Pahang. 

A total of 104 people were screened here, of which 31 were found to be positive0. 

Besides the seven workplace related clusters, the two other clusters detected are Jalan Suria and Pulau Lima clusters.  

The Jalan Suria cluster is related to a private medical centre in Johor Bahru, Johor. 

Twenty-four individuals in this cluster were reported to be positive for Covid-19 from a total of 686 screened. 

The final cluster detected is Pulau Lima in the district of Pasir Puteh, Kelantan. 

The index case in this cluster was identified to be Covid-19 positive on January 10, through symptomatic individual screening. 

As of today, from 27 people screened, nine were found to be Covid-19 positive. 

Today’s nine new clusters bring the cases by groups in the country to 660 of which 299 are still active. 

Noor Hisham said that 81 of 299 clusters are still actively reporting new cases. 

Clusters reporting high cases today are Bina Muda construction site with 217 cases, followed by Perdana Avenue construction site (145 cases) and Casuarina construction site (76 cases).

The director general said that two clusters have ended as for today and they are Mesra and Samudera clusters.

This takes the total number of clusters to end in the country to 361. – January 18, 2021.