KUALA LUMPUR (July 14): The Ministry of Health (MoH) reported four new Covid-19 cases today — all imported, involving three Malaysians and one foreigner — raising the country's confirmed infections to 8,729.

“Of the four imported cases, two cases detected from those who returned from Singapore, one case from the United Arab Emirates, and one from Russia,” said health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah during his Covid-19 media briefing today.

At the same time, four new recoveries were also reported, for a total of 8,524 or 97.7% of overall cases.

As the number of new cases are equal to those of new recoveries, total active cases in the country remained at 82, the 13th day in a row that the tally had stayed below the 100 mark. The death toll also remained unchanged for the third consecutive day at 122, as no new fatalities were recorded.

The MoH also reported that two more positive Covid-19 cases have been found linked to the new PUI Novgorod cluster, which the ministry announced yesterday.

One had close contact with the first or index case — patient no. 8673, a Malaysian who was found positive on his return from Russia on July 5 — while another was the new imported case from Russia, which has now been classified as patient no. 8727.

“The patient (no. 8727) arrived in Malaysia on July 13, 2020 and was tested positive [for Covid-19] during the RTK-Antigen test at the international entrance. He was then isolated and admitted to the Sungai Buloh Hospital for treatment.

“It was found that the patient had close contacts with patient no. 8673 and patient no. 8718 (the second case under this cluster) in Novgorod, Russia,” said Noor Hisham.

As of noon today, twenty-two people linked to the cluster have been screened, with five confirmed infections earlier.

The ministry said further investigations and contact-tracing activities are ongoing. However, the source of infection is still unclear.