KUALA LUMPUR (July 17): The Ministry of Health (MoH) has discovered four new clusters today namely PUI Pitakwa, PUI Shirala, Kuching medical centre and Jupiter, with a total of six new infections from all these clusters.

Two positive cases were detected under the PUI Pitakwa cluster in Terengganu, one under PUI Shirala in Kuala Lumpur, one under the Kuching medical centre, and two cases under the imported cluster of Jupiter.

For the PUI Pitakwa cluster, the index case was a Malaysian (patient no. 8,737) who returned from Nigeria on July 11, 2020.

“Covid-19 screening [on the index case] at KLIA international entrance showed negative results. Three days after arriving in Malaysia, the patient started to experience symptoms and did a second screening. After that, the patient was tested positive for the virus and admitted to Hulu Terengganu Hospital,” said health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement today.

Prior to this, the ministry had identified and screened forty-four close contacts, including family members of the index case and passengers and crew of the flight he took. From this total, two positive cases were detected (patient no. 8,754 and patient no. 8,755), with three found negative. The remainder 39 are still awaiting their test results.

Meanwhile for the PUI Shirala cluster, one positive case has been detected so far (patient no. 8,738). The index case was an expatriate (patient no. 8,730) who arrived in the country on July 6 for work-related matters.

“Two close contacts have been identified — one was tested positive while one was negative,” said Noor Hisham.

As for the Kuching medical centre cluster, the index case found was a healthcare frontliner (patient no. 8,734) and was tested positive on July 14.

On screening the index case's close contacts, one positive case — patient no. 8,744 — was found. The patient was a colleague of the index case at the same medical centre, said Noor Hisham.

As for the Jupiter cluster, the index case was a foreigner (patient no. 8,723), a shipping crew with a history of travel to Japan and Singapore. A total of 29 close contacts have been screened, all involving the patient's colleagues.

“Two were tested positive for the virus (patients no. 8,747 and 8,748), while 27 were found negative,” noted Noor Hisham, adding this imported cluster is an isolated cluster, hence the public not exposed to the shipping crew would not be at risk.

Further investigations are ongoing into these new clusters, Noor Hisham added.

Malaysia reported 18 new Covid-19 cases today, comprising 10 imported cases and eight locally-transmitted ones. This pushed the country's total cases to 8,755, with 92 active cases.

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