PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s biggest Covid-19 cluster that originated from the Sri Petaling tabligh gathering recorded zero new cases, and thus, was declared to have ended yesterday.
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Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic) said the cluster was detected following a religious gathering held at a mosque there from Feb 27 to March 3, which was attended by 16,000 participants comprising 14,500 Malaysians and 1,500 foreigners.
“The Health Ministry is happy to announce that the biggest Covid-19 cluster in Malaysia, which is the Sri Petaling gathering, is declared to have ended.
“The first Covid-19 positive cases from this cluster in the country were reported on March 11, which were cases 131 and 136 involving Malaysians from Pahang and Negri Sembilan who attended the gathering,” he said.Dr Noor Hisham said there was a big possibility that this cluster originated from overseas and then spread within the community during the mass gathering.
A total of 42,023 people from this cluster were screened and of that, 3,375 were Covid-19 positive.
“Cases from this cluster and sub-clusters under it were detected in seven states, involving 2,550 Malaysians and 825 foreigners from 28 countries.
“Most of these positive cases were asymptomatic, which are 2,187 cases or 64.8% of the total positive cases from this cluster,” he said.
According to him, 87 patients were treated at the intensive care unit, with 29 of them needing ventilator support, and 3,341 individuals recovered to take the recovery rate to 98.9%.
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Regarding fatalities involving this cluster, he said 34 deaths were recorded, of which 31 were Malaysians and three foreigners.
Of the total, 30 were men.
He said that based on their investigation and focused approach, the ministry detected 17 sub-clusters from this main cluster, including the Kampung Sungai Lui cluster which also ended yesterday, the Selangor Mansion cluster and the Pasar Borong Kuala Lumpur cluster.
“Since the early detection of this cluster, the government carried out an aggressive and focused approach through active case detection of targeted groups in this cluster, who are the participants and close contacts of the gathering in Sri Petaling as well as students, tahfiz and madrasah centre employees nationwide.“Four months have passed since we first detected this cluster and today is the last day of the 28-day period since the last case from this cluster was reported on June 11,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham described the achievement as a joint success for the Health Ministry and other agencies which had cooperated through the integrated action to control and curb the spread of Covid-19 within this cluster.He also emphasised the major role played by the media in disseminating information and communicating the risks regarding this cluster nationwide.
“Thank you also to the Sri Petaling mosque for its concerted support and assistance. The cooperation by every member of the gathering was a big help in our efforts to trace, curb and treat Covid-19 cases,” he said.
-BERNAMA