Two new clusters in Pahang due to Raya visits

Two of three new Covid-19 clusters in Pahang emerged after people made Hari Raya Aidilfitri visits during the recent celebration, state health director Dr Bahari Che Awang Ngah says.

He said the index case of one of the clusters, the Kampung Mat Daling cluster in Jerantut, reported on May 25 was a 37-year-old local woman who returned to her village for eight days from May 11.

“This cluster refers to the locality of infection involving family members and villagers who gathered for the Raya celebration. The index case started losing her sense of taste on May 21 before the screening test at a private clinic on May 24 found her to be positive.

“Forty-seven close contacts comprising family members and villagers were then screened with 10 confirmed positive for Covid-19,” he said in a statement.

Bahari said another cluster linked to Raya, the Batu Hitam cluster, referred to the locality of a workplace where the index case, a local man, aged 52, worked at a factory in Gebeng.

“The man started having symptoms of fever on May 14 and was confirmed positive on May 21. Further investigation found he had visited members of his family living nearby another family on the first day of Raya,” he said, adding that 80 people had been screened in this cluster with 39 of them testing positive.

Bahari said the other new cluster, the Gebeng Industry cluster, started on May 28. Out of 70 individuals screened, 25 were found to be positive.

He said the 135 new cases brought the total number of positive cases in Pahang to 10,139, including 1,784 active cases.

Seven districts recorded an increase in cases with Jerantut recording the highest with 72, followed by Kuantan (40), Lipis (10), Bentong (nine), Cameron Highlands (two) and Maran and Bera (one each).

Twenty-five patients are being treated at the ICU of Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital and Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah Hospital, 16 of whom are on ventilators.