The said clusters are Jalan Bomba and Jalan Utara clusters in Sabah, Benteng PK cluster in Selangor and Bakawali cluster in Johor

by RAHIMI YUNUS / pic by RAZAK GHAZALI

FOUR new Covid-19 clusters have emerged with two in Sabah and one each in Selangor and Johor, as positive cases continue to be more than 100 daily since last week.

Health DG Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (picture) said the four new clusters identified are Jalan Bomba and Jalan Utara clusters in Sabah, Benteng PK cluster in Selangor and Bakawali cluster in Johor.

Yesterday saw 101 new cases adding to the total of 11,135 cases in the country to date.

Dr Noor Hisham said the 101 new cases included 73 cases from Sabah, Selangor (11) and Sarawak (three). Of the new cases, 97 cases were locally transmitted and four were imported cases.

Dr Noor Hisham said the number of cases has increased since Sept 7, mainly due to the spikes in Sabah and Kedah.

He said one cluster that is worrying is the Bangau-Bangau cluster which recorded 51 new cases yesterday.

He added that the rate of positivity in the cluster stands at 65.56% at the moment, which means more individuals are not screened, thus efforts will be enhanced to get more people tested in the community.

“We hope to screen more because the virus is already in the community, family and the environment. We want to increase the screening for the Bangau-Bangau cluster,” Dr Noor Hisham said.

Meanwhile, the number of people arrested for violating the Recovery Movement Control Order (MCO) dropped to 82 yesterday compared to 661 on Sunday.

Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said failing to practise physical distancing tops the MCO breach list with 46 offenders, followed by offences for not wearing face masks (23), failing to provide registration tools (12), and pub and nightclub activities (one).

On Op Benteng, Ismail Sabri said the authorities apprehended 29 illegal foreign workers. He added that two smugglers were arrested, while a boat and four land vehicles were seized at 81 roadblocks yesterday.

Ismail Sabri said from July 24 until yesterday, 37,133 individuals returned to Malaysia and 8,671 individuals had been undergoing compulsory quarantine at hotels, public training institutions and private higher education institutions nationwide.

Meanwhile, the minister said from March 30 to yesterday, 10,153 public sanitation operations were carried out at 13,062 premises which comprised of 2,716 business centres, 1,601 housing areas, 2,623 public places, 354 supermarkets and 5,768 government buildings.