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Aidilfitri and Gawai contributed 60 Covid-19 clusters in a month, says Noor Hisham

Ragananthini Vethasalam3 years ago10th Jun 2021News
Raya barricade 130521
Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah says house visits and interstate travel during the recent festivities have contributed to the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases. Sixty clusters linked to the celebrations have emerged in the space of one month. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, June 10, 2021.
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THE Aidilfitri and Gawai festivities gave rise 60 Covid-19 clusters between May 13 and today, said Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

A total of 58 clusters were linked to the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration while two clusters came from the Hari Gawai festival in Sarawak.

Noor Hisham said a total of 13,023 people were screened and 3,511 or 27% tested positive for the virus.

He said 20 people succumbed to the virus while 11 are being treated at intensive care units.

“The spike in cases and deaths linked to the festive clusters is very serious and worrying as it happened within a short period,” he said.

“It is not impossible that cases will continue to increase if people continue to be lax and not learn from past experiences.”

He said visits and interstate travel during the festivities have contributed to the rise in cases and urged the people to protect the elderly from being exposed to the virus.

Noor Hisham advised Malaysians to learn from neighbouring countries which managed to rein in the pandemic with high compliance to standard operating procedure and getting quickly adapted to the new normal.

He also urged the public to sign up for the vaccination programme to develop herd immunity to create a safer environment for everyone. – June 10, 2021.

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