CORONAVIRUS | Malaysia today recorded 21 new Covid-19 cases comprising two imported infections and 19 local transmissions.
The local transmissions made up of 12 Malaysians and seven non-citizens, according to Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
Out of the 12 Malaysians, 10 were from Selangor including a non-medical frontliner stationed within the administrative movement control order (MCO) areas of Taman Langat Murni and Taman Langat Utama.
The areas were put under administrative MCO since June 16 due to an increase in Covid-19 cases there.
The other Selangor cases involving Malaysians include seven from the targeted screening of religious schools, one involving a family member linked to the old folks home cluster and a family member of the new Labu Lanjut cluster in Sepang.
The remaining local transmissions involving Malaysians are a convict who was screened before being transferred to a prison in Seremban and another asymptomatic case detected through community screening in Kota Kinabalu.
As for the local transmission involving the seven non-citizens, all of them were close contacts of Patient 8,498 and Patient 8,523.
"All of them were housemates," Noor Hisham said in a statement.
The imported cases involved one Malaysian and a foreigner with permanent resident status.
Recovery rate crosses 95 percent
The new infections in the last 24 hours up to noon today brings the cumulative cases to 8,556.
The Health Ministry today also marked another milestone as the Covid-19 recovery rate crossed the 95 percent mark.
Noor Hisham said another 76 Covid-19 patients have been discharged, bringing the total recoveries to 8,146 or 95.2 percent of total cases.
Only 289 patients are still under treatment, of which three are in the intensive care unit.
No new death was reported, maintaining the death toll at 121 people.
Elaborating on the new Lanjut Labu cluster in Sepang, Noor Hisham said five cases have been detected so far.
He said the index case was first detected after the patient sought treatment for Acute Respiratory Infection at Serdang Hospital on June 5.
He added active case detection following the discovery of the infection led to four more cases, all involving family members.
The four are the index case's two children and two grandchildren.
"Thus far, 29 close contacts have been identified and screened. 25 of them tested negative.
"The source of the infection is still under investigation but the spread is suspected to have been visiting activities," he said.
Noor Hisham reiterated for Malaysians to avoid crowded places, confined spaces and close conversations which he referred to as the "3Cs", as a precaution against Covid-19.
He also reminded Malaysians to wash their hands with soap, wear a face mask in public and heed warnings from the Health Ministry, referred to as the "3Ws".
