Malaysia’s Covid-19 numbers go back up to 103 cases today, mostly foreigners from new cluster
KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — After two days of record lows, the number of new Covid-19 cases in Malaysia have spiked again, with 103 new cases reported today.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that the new cases were mostly from the Pedas factory cluster in Negri Sembilan and a new cluster at a cleaning company involving foreigners.
“The spike today is mostly among foreigners. Of the 103, 84 were foreigners; 53 were from Pedas comprising non-citizens and one local, while 24 came from a private cleaning company. The Pudu cluster also saw an increase of three cases.
“Seven cases were imported cases: four from Egypt, two from Saudi Arabia and one from Australia. With this, among the locally transmitted cases, 12 are local,” he said during his daily Covid-19 press briefing today.
No deaths were reported today. This is the seventh consecutive day that Malaysia hasn’t reported any Covid-19 deaths. The death toll remains at 115, or 1.49 per cent.
Meanwhile, 66 people were discharged, bringing the total number of recovered cases to 6,235 or 80.64 per cent of the total number of cases at 7,732.
Dr Noor Hisham said that the new cluster was discovered by a private clinic engaged by the cleaning company to screen its workers.
He said it was commendable for the company to run its own screening despite its workers not showing any symptoms, and that it was likely spread by the close proximity living conditions of the workers in their hostels in Kuala Langat and Nilai.
“There is a need to look into their living conditions through laws under the Labour Act immediately to prevent any spread of diseases moving forward,” he said.
All the workers found to be positive were Bangladeshi nationals.
As for the Pedas cluster, he said that the new cases were discovered among the staff who were being quarantined following the discovery of the cluster earlier this month. Of the 53, the sole Malaysian among them is a canteen worker.
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