Covid-19 (Dec 9): 959 new cases, spike in Pahang

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry today reported 959 new Covid-19 cases, the first time it has fallen under four figures in a week.

The last time the country recorded under 1,000 new cases in a day was on Dec 2.

Selangor again topped the chart with 277 new infections followed by Sabah (203) and Kuala Lumpur (129).

A notable development is the spike of new Covid-19 cases in Pahang, which for the most parts of the pandemic's third wave has recorded zero or single-digit cases, until recently.

Today, Pahang broke three digits for the first time during the third wave, recording 119 new cases.

This was in part contributed by outbreaks among migrant workers living at three condominiums at Genting Highlands, referred to as the Jalan Genting cluster.

On the flip side, the Health Ministry reported 1,068 recoveries today. This means a total of 65,124 people have recovered from Covid-19.

Leading indicators

Active cases: 10,748 ↓ (114 less than the previous day)

Patients in ICU: 127 ↑ (1 more than the previous day)

Intubated patients: 61 ↓ (1 less than the previous day)

Deaths: 5 ↑ (3 more than the previous day)

The five fatalities bring the death toll to 393. Details of the latest deaths are as follows:

Patient 39,066 (Death 389): 75-year-old Malaysian man. Died at Hospital Sungai Buloh, Selangor. Had a history of gout.

Patient 62,272 (Death 390): 61-year-old Malaysian man. Died at Hospital Duchess of Kent, Sandakan, Sabah. Had a history of high blood pressure.

Patient 63,156 (Death 391): 86-year-old Malaysian man. Died at Hospital Enche' Besar Hajjah Khalsom, Kluang, Johor. Had a history of diabetes, chronic kidney disease and bronchiectasis.

Patient 65,674 (Death 392): 60-year-old Malaysian man. Died at Hospital Enche' Besar Hajjah Khalsom, Kluang, Johor. Had a history of high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and stroke.

Patient 65,911 (Death 393): 82-year-old Malaysian man. Died at Hospital Queen Elizabeth, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. No reported pre-existing conditions.

A breakdown of new infections today by states is as follows:

Selangor (277)
Existing clusters: 78
Close contacts: 76
Imported: 1
Other screenings: 122

Sabah (203)
Existing clusters: 36
New cluster: 1 (Kupi-kupi cluster)
Close contacts: 106
Other screenings: 60

Kuala Lumpur (129)
Existing clusters: 76
New cluster: 3 (Ikon Bintang construction site cluster)
Close contacts: 22
Imported: 5
Other screenings 23:

Pahang (119)
Existing clusters: 119

Johor (100):
Existing clusters: 37
New cluster: 1 (Bandar Impian cluster)
Close contacts: 22
Other screenings: 40

Negeri Sembilan (33)
Existing clusters: 8
New cluster: 7 (Jalan Kemang cluster)
Close contacts: 3
Other screenings: 15

Perak (33)
Existing clusters: 29
Close contacts: 3
Other screenings: 1

Penang (29)
Existing clusters: 16
Close contacts: 9
Other screenings: 4

Kelantan (17)
Existing clusters: 12
Close contacts: 2
Other screenings: 3

Kedah (16)
Existing clusters: 11
Close contacts: 4
Other screenings: 1

Malacca (2)
Existing cluster: 1
Other screenings 1

Labuan (1)
Other screenings: 1

No new cases were reported in Sarawak, Terengganu, Putrajaya and Perlis today.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a statement, said four Covid-19 clusters have been resolved.

They are the Gala cluster, Harmoni cluster, Mahkota cluster and Bah Kenangan cluster.

However, he also reported the emergence of four new clusters, namely the Kupi-Kupi cluster, Ikon Bintang construction site cluster, Bandar Impian cluster and Jalan Kemang cluster.

This means 185 out of 396 clusters are still active. However, only 38 of the active clusters reported new cases today.

The top contributors today were from the Jalan Genting cluster (119), Bintang cluster (45) and Bina Muda construction site cluster (39).

The four new clusters today were from Sabah, Kuala Lumpur, Johor, Kelantan and Perak.

The Kupi-kupi cluster involved the district of Penampang in Sabah. The cluster was traced to Patient 67,316 and Patient 67,318 who were discovered through a screening of symptomatic individuals on Dec 2.

Since then, health authorities have screened 12 people in the cluster and all of them had Covid-19. Contact-tracing is still ongoing.

The Ikon Bintang construction site cluster involved the districts of Lembah Pantai and Kepong in Kuala Lumpur.

It was discovered through targeted screening of workplaces. A total of 532 people were screening and 12 turned up positive with Covid-19.

The Bandar Impian cluster involved the district of Kluang in Johor, Pasir Puteh in Kelantan and Kuala Kangsar in Perak.

It was discovered after Patient 67,156 was screened as a severe acute respiratory infection (Sari) on Dec 1 and was positive for Covid-19.

Since then, 58 people have been screened and nine of them have Covid-19.

The Jalan Kemang cluster involved the district of Port Dickson in Negeri Sembilan.

The index case is Patient 71,123 who was reported positive with Covid-19 on Dec 5 through a screening of symptomatic persons. 

Of the 257 people screened to date, 19 are positive with Covid-19.