Covid-19: Malaysia adds 1,472 new cases, over half from Top Glove-linked Teratai cluster, with three more deaths

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 1): Malaysia reported 1,472 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, as a spike in the Teratai cluster in Selangor contributed more than half of the new additions. This pushed the country's cumulative confirmed infections to 67,169 cases.

It also recorded three more deaths, all in Sabah, which raised the nationwide death toll from the coronavirus to 363.

Selangor, according to Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, contributed 891 or 60.5% of the new infections. Of that, 778 came from the Teratai cluster that originated from Top Glove Corp Bhd's workers dormitories in Meru, Klang. This means the Teratai additions made up over half or 52.9% of the overall new cases.

Sabah was the second highest contributor of the daily infections, with 267 cases, followed by Negeri Sembilan with 146 cases, said Ministry of Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. The remainder cases came from: Johor (68), Penang (29), Kuala Lumpur (26), Kedah (21), Perak (13), Kelantan (10), and Sarawak (1).

Meanwhile, 1,552 more patients have recovered from the illness today, which are higher than the new infections reported. This further trimmed the tally of actives — those who carry high transmission risks — to 10,495, marking the third straight day of decline, while total recoveries now stand at 56,311 or 83.8% of overall infections.

Dr Noor Hisham said the high number of cases reported of late was due to the ministry’s efforts in screening close contacts of Covid-19 patients, and active case detection. "Most of the cases in the country came from the construction sites and factories,” he said.

Five out of the new daily cases today were imported infections, he added, with one each from India, Egypt, the US, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Two new clusters detected in Sabah, with 58 infections

Meanwhile, the ministry has identified two new infection clusters today, both in Sabah, with a total of 58 infections between them.

It also declared the ending of three other clusters — namely the Highway and Inai clusters in Sabah, and the Jalan Meru cluster that spanned Selangor, Johor, Kelantan, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya — with no new infections found in the last 28 days.

As for the two new clusters, they are the View Kolombong cluster in Kota Kinabalu and Tuaran (with 40 cases), and the Talang-talang cluster in Kota Kinabalu (18 cases). The index patients for both clusters were found through symptomatic screening.

So far, the ministry has identified 364 infection clusters, of which 184 have now ended.

Sabah remains Malaysia’s worst-hit state, with a total of 29,038 cases, followed by Selangor with 14,826 cases, Kuala Lumpur with 6,232, and Negeri Sembilan with 5,061.

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