All districts of Penang now red zones
All districts in Penang are now red zones, amid a tourism surge after the interstate travel ban was lifted last month.
This means all districts have recorded more than 40 Covid-19 cases in the past 14 days.
Seberang Perai Utara, the state’s last yellow zone, turned red yesterday after recording an additional 20 cases.
It has recorded 57 cases in the past fortnight.
The worst-hit sub-districts (mukim) are the capital city of...
All districts in Penang are now red zones, amid a tourism surge after the interstate travel ban was lifted last month.
This means all districts have recorded more than 40 Covid-19 cases in the past 14 days.
Seberang Perai Utara, the state’s last yellow zone, turned red yesterday after recording an additional 20 cases.
It has recorded 57 cases in the past fortnight.
The worst-hit sub-districts (mukim) are the capital city of George Town, with 211 cases in the past fortnight, and Mukim 12 of the Barat Daya district (352 cases).
Mukim 12, Barat Daya includes the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zones.
Other red sub-districts are Mukim 13, Timur Laut and Mukim 14, Seberang Perai Selatan.
Mukim 13 of Timur Laut includes areas like Batu Uban, Paya Terubong, Taman Jubilee, and Pulau Jerejak, while Mukim 14 of Seberang Perai Selatan covers the Simpang Ampat area.
Sub-district borders can be viewed here.
Penang govt urges calm, says spike due to foreign worker testing
On Saturday, Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the rise in cases is largely due to screening done on foreign workers at construction sites and factories.
He added that most of the cases detected are within known clusters, including the Rawa Akasia cluster which has 130 cases to date and is Penang’s largest active cluster.
“As such, I urge Penang residents to remain calm and not to neglect the standard operating procedures in the recovery movement control order and the conditional movement control order in Mukim 12 (Barat Daya) and Mukim 13 (Timur Laut),” he said.
The exact location of the Rawa Akasia cluster is not disclosed but the Health Ministry said it has spread to the Timur Laut, Barat Daya, Seberang Perai Tengah, and Seberang Perai Selatan districts.
The Rawa Akasia cluster is a workplace cluster that was first detected on Dec 24 in the Timur Laut district through testing of a symptomatic 50-year-old Malaysian woman, the ministry said.
Further contact tracing found the infection had spread to three other districts through social and family contacts.
More than 100 cases involve foreigners in four Penang districts, the ministry said.
Interstate travelers spread Covid-19 nationwide
Meanwhile, other states have reported a rise in cases linked to interstate travel, with Perlis being the only state recording no new cases in the past 14 days.
As of yesterday, Kelantan has 58 active cases involving those who had travelled to the state, including three who travelled from Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya and tested positive yesterday.
The Belukar cluster was also reported yesterday, involving an individual who travelled from a "high-risk area" who later spread the infection to 17 contacts in Machang.
Yesterday, Terengganu reported three cases involving those who visited Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Selangor, and Penang.
Twelve new cases in Perak were yesterday marked as "infection from outside of Perak", while Sarawak has consistently recorded cases among those entering from out of state in the past week.
Yesterday, Sarawak reported two cases in Bintulu who travelled from Kuala Lumpur.
In Melaka, a 27-year-old tested positive yesterday after travelling to Cameron Highlands, Pahang, and Petaling Jaya, Selangor, the state health department reported.
In Pahang, three out of nine new cases were those who travelled from Johor, Kuala Lumpur, and Sabah, while Negeri Sembilan reported six new cases among out-of-state travellers.
Interestingly, Selangor, which is a red zone state, reported only one case, out of 8,082 active cases, imported from another state.
However, it is unclear how many of the cases reported involve locals who had travelled interstate.
Johor, Kedah, Sabah, and the Federal Territories of Labuan, Putrajaya, and Kuala Lumpur do not provide a detailed breakdown of the source of infection of new cases.
However, Sabah minister Masidi Manjun said recent cases detected were traced to social gatherings linked to paddy-planting activities and Christmas celebrations.
Lintas Seraya, the latest Sabah cluster which recorded 16 cases to date, was traced to a restaurant in Lintas, Kota Kinabalu, where a Christmas celebration was held, the state government said.
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