COVID-19 | The country reported 20 new Covid-19 cases today including from another new cluster detected in Kedah.

This came in the wake of the recent emergence of two infection clusters in the northern state since late-July, namely the Sivagangga cluster and the Tawar cluster.

In a statement today, the Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said seven of the 20 new cases were imported, while the remaining 13 were locally transmitted.

One of the local cases is from the newly detected Muda cluster in Kuala Muda, bringing the size of the cluster to two cases so far.

The index case (Case 9114) is a police officer, while the new infection reported today is his colleague.

Contact tracing and active case detection for this cluster have been underway since yesterday.

So far, Noor Hisham said that of the 124 people tested in this cluster, two tested positive, five were negative, and 117 are still pending results.

“The source of the infection is still under investigation,” he added.

Meanwhile, 11 new cases were reported for the Tawar cluster, of which ten were in Kedah and one in Penang.

Noor Hisham also clarified that Case 9,129 - who was reported in the media yesterday as having been admitted to Penang Adventist Hospital for a wound infection, before being transferred to Penang General Hospital following contact tracing for the Tawar cluster - is classified as a Kedah case.

“(The Penang case) has a history of visiting Case 9,113 and Case 9,129 at a private hospital in Penang,” Noor Hisham said, adding that contact tracing is ongoing.

He said 156 people have been tested in Kedah during contact tracing for the Tawar cluster so far, of which 20 came back positive, 77 negative, and 59 are still awaiting results.

In Penang, 105 people were tested, of which 75 were negative for the coronavirus and 29 are still pending results.

The new cases bring the size of the Tawar cluster to 21 cases compared to 10 cases yesterday when the cluster was first reported.

The index case for the cluster, Case 9,113, had attended a funeral of a family member on July 31 and Aug 1, developed symptoms on Aug 8 and sought treatment at a medical centre.

He tested positive for Covid-19 on Aug 11.

Additional case

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said an additional Covid-19 case had been detected through screening of severe acute respiratory infection cases in Kedah.

As for the imported cases, the director-general said it involved six Malaysian citizens and one non-citizen.

These cases acquired their infections in Lebanon (three cases), Indonesia (one case), France (one case), Yemen (one case) and Taiwan (one case).

This brings to 9,149 the number of cases recorded in Malaysia since the beginning of the outbreak.

Four of the patients are currently receiving treatment in intensive care units compared to just two yesterday. One of them needs a ventilator.

The death toll remains unchanged at 125 while seven patients have recovered and have been discharged. This brings the total number of recoveries to 8,828 while 196 cases are still active.