MORE than 50% of the total Covid-19 clusters in Malaysia since the start of the pandemic are linked to workplaces, official data show.

Figures from the Health Ministry showed that workplaces also reported more infections than any other venues.

“Since the onset of the pandemic, workplaces have reported 1,011 clusters with a total of 124,614 infected people,” it said.

The figures were accumulated from January 25, 2020 to May 18, 2021.

They showed that 26% of coronavirus cases in the country were traced to workplaces.

As of May 20, there are 1,966 clusters in Malaysia, 52% of them stemming from workplaces.

Forty-six clusters were reported on May 19 and 20 alone; 17 of them were linked to workplaces.

The biggest cluster of all, Teratai was reported at the factory of Top Glove, the world’s biggest producer of surgical gloves, on November 7, 2020.

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the virus spread beyond the circle of factory workers and spawned a second generation of infections, resulting in 7,205 cases in total.

The Teratai cluster was resolved more than five months later on April 18. 

Recently, Malaysia announced a third nationwide movement control order effective May 12 to June 7 in an effort to contain the soaring number of new cases.

More than a week later, the numbers show no sign of declining and have in fact reached record heights.

Yesterday, Malaysia reported a record 6,806 cases and 59 deaths in a single day.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Takiyuddin Hassan said the National Security Council will decide today if the current MCO will evolve into full lockdown.