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Increase in sporadic Covid cases, deaths, says Noor Hisham

He encourages the public to continue complying with SOPs and to wear double face masks when going to crowded places with poor ventilation.

Bernama
2 minute read
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Health workers take swab samples from a family at a community screening for Covid-19 at the Sri Penara flats in Cheras.
Health workers take swab samples from a family at a community screening for Covid-19 at the Sri Penara flats in Cheras.

Malaysia has been seeing a trend of sudden increases in Covid-19 cases and deaths, especially since April 1 this year, says health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the situation was worrying as the majority of new infections and deaths were sporadic cases.

He said sporadic cases are cases detected within communities which cannot be linked to any existing cases or clusters.

“The health ministry is urging the public to take this situation seriously as the spread of Covid-19 is within communities including at shopping complexes, workplaces and so on.

“They need to understand that anyone could be infected with Covid-19, wherever they are. As a result, we can see the increase in sporadic cases and fatalities within communities,” he said in a statement.

Noor Hisham said based on analysis, the number of such cases remained high during the 22nd epidemiology week until June 5 with 52,040 new cases recorded, 84.3% of which were sporadic cases.

“It shows a clear increase from the 8,968 new cases with 52% sporadic cases from the 13th epidemiology week or until April 3,” he added.

Noor Hisham also noted that the cumulative fatalities from Covid-19 had risen from week to week, from the 22nd epidemiology week with 641 cases recorded including 559 sporadic cases compared to 35 fatalities including 26 sporadic ones in the 13th epidemiology week or until April 3.

“One of the factors contributing to this situation was the emergence of new variants of the virus within communities with higher infectivity and fatality rates, besides the wider spread of Covid-19 within communities compared to the previous epidemiology week,” he said.

Noor Hisham said the public should continue to be consistent in complying with the SOPs and the government’s call for them to stay at home and to only go out when necessary.

“They are encouraged to wear double face masks, especially in crowded public places with poor ventilation, and also a face shield at high-risk public places like hospitals and clinics,” he added.