KUALA LUMPUR: Three of the eight new Covid-19 clusters identified by the Health Ministry today were education clusters.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said two of the three new education-institute linked clusters (which are under the education ministry) were the Jalan Bukit Naga cluster and Jalan Kuala Garing cluster identified in Selangor.
The other education cluster, he said was detected in Kelantan, named the Halban Dua cluster.
"The Jalan Bukit Naga cluster involves the Klang and Petaling districts in Selangor. The index case for this cluster (Case-375,243) was reported positive for Covid-19 on April 19 following a symptomatic individual screening.
"This cluster involves the staff and students of a school located at Jalan Bukit Naga, Shah Alam, Petaling. As of April 25, a total of 127 individuals had been screened, of which 18 cases were detected positive in this cluster.
"The Jalan Kuala Garing cluster was identified in Gombak, where the index case (Case-388,181) was reported positive on April 24 following a screening for symptomatic individuals.
"This cluster involves students of a school located at Jalan Kuala Garing, Rawang, Gombak. As of April 25, a total of 230 individuals have been screened, of which five cases were detected positive," he said in a statement today.
Dr Noor Hisham said cases from the Halban Dua education cluster reported positive for Covid-19 starting on April 18 after health officials conducted a targeted screening of staff and students at an education centre located in Mukim Padang Halban, Melor, Kota Baru.
As of April 25, he said 81 individuals had been screened, of which 63 cases were detected positive for Covid-19 in this cluster.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said the remaining clusters were workplace-linked (three), a detention centre cluster and a community cluster.
This, he said, brought the total number of Covid-19 clusters to 1,591.
"The workplace clusters were reported in Kapit and Bukit Mabong, Sarawak (Putai cluster involving workers at a dam); Kinabatangan, Sabah (Ladang Paris Dua cluster involving workers in the plantation); Central Melaka (Jalan Melaka Raya cluster involving workers at a restaurant located at Jalan Melaka Raya 8, Taman Melaka Raya).
"A detention centre cluster was identified in Kluang, Johor, named the Pagar Sri Lalang cluster and the community cluster was reported in Serian, Sarawak (Rayang cluster)."
He said to date, there were 351 active clusters with the most cases reported from the Putai cluster (199 cases), Persiaran Cybersouth construction site cluster (48), and Jalan Hospital cluster (36 cases).
He added that a total of 1,240 clusters have ended to date, including the nine clusters which ended yesterday.
They are the Paya Bemban cluster, Jalan Indah Gemilang Satu cluster, Industri Permata cluster, Jalan Tenteram cluster, Jalan Gemilang Tiga cluster, Teluk Air Tawar cluster, Jalan Hang Tuah cluster, Jalan Perdana cluster, and Persiaran Jaya cluster.