COVID-19 Weekly Round-Up: Malaysia Continues To Be Battered By New Cases

By Melati Mohd Ariff This is a round-up of COVID-19 related matters in Malaysia and globally from Dec 5 up to 12.30 pm today. In Malaysia, case numbers have exceeded 78,000 and globally, the virus has infected more than 70 million people and caused about 1.5 million deaths. More than 200 countries and territories are affected by the pandemic. KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 11 (Bernama) -- The spike in daily new COVID-19 cases in Malaysia is expected to linger until the year-end largely due to wide-scale screening of workers, particularly those working in factories and at construction sites, that started on Dec 1. Various new clusters have already emerged from the screening exercises and some of them reported over 100 positive cases on the day they were announced by the Ministry of Health (MOH). On Thursday, three new construction site clusters were reported, namely Jalan Bukit Construction Site cluster with 47 cases in Hulu Selangor, Selangor; Condong Construction Site cluster in Kuala Lumpur with 24 cases; and Jalan Stadium Construction Site cluster with 15 cases, also in Kuala Lumpur. On Saturday, Dec 5, the new Bulatan Construction Site cluster (involving Cheras, Titiwangsa and Lembah Pantai districts in Kuala Lumpur) recorded 163 positive cases. On Sunday, Dec 6, a new cluster, Ceram, had emerged in Seremban district of Negeri Sembilan state, following a workplace screening exercise and 171 positive cases were reported that day. Another cluster was announced on Monday, Dec 7, namely Awan Lembah Construction Site cluster (involving Lembah Pantai and Titiwangsa) with 35 cases. On Tuesday, two new clusters involving a workplace and construction site were announced. The first, Seruling cluster involving Klang, Hulu Selangor and Petaling districts, recorded 109 positive cases as of Tuesday and yesterday, the number soared to 842, thus accounting for a huge chunk of the 1,428 new COVID-19 infections reported in Selangor on Thursday. The second cluster, Bina Darul Construction Site involving Titiwangsa, Cheras and Lembah Pantai, recorded 14 cases on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Ikon Bintang Construction Site cluster was announced. It involved Lembah Pantai and Kepong and reported 12 cases. COVID-19 CASES OVER NEXT FORTNIGHT On Wednesday, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told a media briefing that the ministry expects the COVID-19 infectivity rate (R-naught or R0) to hover around 0.95 to 1.05 over the next two weeks up to Dec 23. With this, daily new cases reported during this period are expected to be the range of 845 to 1,700. On Tuesday, the R0 value was 0.96 and on that day Malaysia recorded 1,012 new cases. The next day, 959 new cases were reported while the R0 stood at 0.93/0.94. R0 refers to the infectivity of a virus at the start of an outbreak within a community. Maintaining the COVID-19 R0 value below 1.0 will help in efforts to break the chain of infections in Malaysia. As of Thursday, a total of 401 clusters have been recorded in the country and 214 of them have ended. Currently, 187 clusters are active with 57 of them reporting new cases. During the week under review (Dec 5-10), four new clusters were reported on Saturday, three on Sunday, two on Monday, two on Tuesday, four on Wednesday and five on Thursday. Meanwhile, 115 COVID-19 cases from the Jalan Genting cluster will be quarantined in the Pahang Sports Complex in Kuantan starting Friday. This cluster was among the eight new clusters announced on Dec 4 and it involves Titiwangsa district in Kuala Lumpur and Bentong district in Pahang. The index case was detected following a workplace screening. DAILY CASES Over the 24-hour period up to noon yesterday, Malaysia reported a whopping 2,234 new cases, the highest single-day figure ever reported since the start of the pandemic. This brings the nation’s total COVID-19 cases to 78,499, putting Malaysia on the 80th spot in the list of countries affected by the pandemic. Singapore with its 58,297 cases is on the 86th spot. On Thursday, Malaysia’s active cases numbered 11,867. Following is the breakdown of daily new cases reported during the week under review: 1,123 (Saturday), 1,335 (Sunday) 1,600 (Monday), 1,012 (Tuesday) 959 (Wednesday) and 2,234 (Thursday). Recoveries have been high too and the breakdown is as follows: 1,143 (Saturday), 1,069 (Sunday), 1,033 ( Monday), 1,750 (Tuesday), 1,068 (Wednesday) and 1,112 (yesterday). On Thursday, three deaths were reported, bringing the nation’s COVID-19 death toll to 396. Currently, 124 patients are in the intensive care unit with 60 of them requiring respiratory aid. YESTERDAY’S BREAKDOWN OF CASES Out of the 2,234 new cases reported by MOH on Thursday, Selangor accounted for 1,428 – a total of 1,239 cases were from clusters, including the new Jalan Bukit Construction Site cluster. East Malaysian state Sabah accounted for 274 cases, 100 of which were from existing clusters; and Kuala Lumpur reported 136 cases, 104 of which were from clusters including 25 from the Condong and Jalan Stadium construction site clusters. Perak recorded 115 cases with 111 cases contributed by existing clusters; and Johor had 100 cases, 61 of which were from existing clusters including nine from the Jalan Dalam and Tenun Merah clusters. Negeri Sembilan reported 67 cases; Pahang 45; Penang 42; Kedah 14; Melaka five; Kelantan three; Terengganu three; Sarawak one; and Putrajaya (the federal administrative capital) one. SCREENINGS WIDENED Following the sharp spike in COVID-19 cases among Top Glove factory workers in Klang since Nov 7, which led to over 5,000 of them getting infected by the coronavirus, the government directed all foreign workers to undergo screening. The Social Security Organisation (Socso) was reported to have conducted screenings in six states, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, Negeri Sembilan, Penang and Sabah. As a preparatory measure, the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre reopened the low-risk COVID-19 quarantine and treatment centre at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) on Dec 9. This was announced by Senior Minister (Security) Ismail Sabri Yaakob who said that the centre will house non-Malaysian COVID-19 patients. Non-Malaysian patients from the Ministry of Health Training Institute in Sungai Buloh will also be shifted to MAEPS. It was reported that 650 foreign workers who tested positive for COVID-19 were admitted to the centre on Dec 9. The centre has an estimated 10,000 beds and it was first activated on April 16. It was closed on July 15 following a drop in infections in Malaysia. GLOBAL COVID-19 STATISTICS According to CoronaTracker (which cites figures from various agencies including the World Health Organisation), the total number of COVID-19 cases worldwide at the time of writing this article stood at 70,715,251 (65,626,723 cases at the same time last Friday) and 1,588,297 deaths (1,513,866 last Friday). The total number of recoveries stood at 49,145,190. The United States continues to head the list of badly-hit nations with 16,039,393 cases (14,535,196 last Friday) and 299,692 deaths (282,829 last week). India is on the second spot with 9,796,992 cases and 142,222 deaths. Brazil is third with 6,783,543 cases and 179,801 fatalities. Russia is next with 2,569,126 cases and 45,280 deaths, followed by France with 2,337,966 cases and 56,940 deaths. Another 65 countries have recorded cases exceeding 100,000, namely: United Kingdom 1,787,783 cases (63,082 deaths), Italy 1,787,783 (62,626), Turkey 1,748,567 (15,751), Spain 1,734,386 (47,344), Argentina 1,482,216 (40,431), Colombia 1,399,911 (38,484), Germany 1,270,432 (21,233), Mexico 1,217,126 (112,326), Poland 1,102,096 (21,630), Iran 1,083,023 (51,496), Peru 977,312 (36,455), Ukraine 858,714 (14,470), South Africa 836,764 kes 22,747), Indonesia 598,933 (18,336), Belgium 597,643 (17,603), Holland 585,685 (9,902), Iraq 571,253 (12,526), Chile 566,440 (15,774), Czechia 563,333 (9,226), Romania 539,107 (12,948), Bangladesh 485,540 (6,967), Phiippines 445,540 (8,701), Canada 442,069 (13,109), Pakistan 432,327 (8,653), Morocco 391,529 (6,492), Switzerland 368,695 (5,824), Saudi Arabia 359,415 (6,012), Israel 352,397 (2,961), Portugal 335,207 (5,278), Austria 313,688 (4,163), Sweden 312,728 (7,354), Hungary 265,003 (6,451), Jordan 253,121 (3,250), Serbia 249,224 (2,172), Nepal 245,650 (1,663), Ecuador 200,379 (13,850), Panama 185,424 (3,287), United Arab Emirates 181,405 (602), Georgia 178,953 (1,657), Bulgaria 174,568 (5,405), Japan 168,573 (2,465), Croatia 163,992 (2,420), Azerbaijan 162,774 (1,793), Belarus 154,392 (1,238), Dominican Republic 151,721 (2,358), Costa Rica 149,815 (1,882), Bolivia 146,383 (9,008), Armenia 145,240 (2,416), Kuwait 145,495 (910), Lebanon 142,187 (1,170), Qatar 140,516 (240), Kazakhstan 139,995 (2,088), Guatemala 127,786 (4,345), Oman 125,669 (1,463), Slovakia 124,921 (1,104), Moldova 122,685 (2,500), Greece 121,253 (3,370), Egypt 120,147 (6,854), Ethiopia 115,360 (1,779), Honduras 112,792 (2,961), Tunisia 107,814 (3,758), Venezuela 106,280 (938), Palestine 104,879 (910), Myanmar 104,487 (2,201) and Denmark 100,489 (918). China, where the outbreak was first reported at end-December 2019, is now on the 78th spot with 86,688 cases while its death toll remains unchanged at 4,634. In Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia have joined the countries with more than 100,000 cases. Next is Myanmar with 104,487 cases (last Friday 93,600) and 2,201 deaths (1,998 last Friday). Singapore now has 58,297 cases while its death toll is 29. Thailand has recorded 4,169 cases while its death toll remains at 60, followed by Vietnam with 1,385 cases and 35 deaths. Cambodia’s cases rose to 357 and its death tally remains zero. There are no changes to Brunei’s tally of 141 cases and two deaths, and Laos’ 39 cases and zero fatality. COVID-19 BACKGROUND According to the WHO website, its China country office was informed of cases of pneumonia that were detected in Wuhan on Dec 31, 2019. On Jan 7, the Chinese authorities confirmed that the novel coronavirus can be transmitted from human to human. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-COV). A study of the virus’ genetic sequence suggested similarities to that seen in snakes and bats. China health officials identified the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan as the source of the transmission of the coronavirus. On Feb 11, WHO announced the official name of the virus, COVID-19, which is an acronym for coronavirus 2019 – CO stands for corona, VI for virus and D for the disease. On Jan 30, WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global emergency. By then, it had spread to 18 countries and caused 170 deaths. On March 11, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by WHO. WHO has described the COVID-19 outbreak as much more dangerous than the A H1N1 Influenza, also known as Swine Flu. Swine Flu, which occurred between January 2009 and August 2010, infected more than 1.6 million people and caused 18,449 fatalities. The International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will be worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. Translated by Rema Nambiar -- BERNAMA