KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 26): Malaysia’s new Covid-19 cases fell to six — from 11 cases reported yesterday — of which three cases involved the Tawar cluster in Kedah.

This brings active cases to 188 and total cases in the country to 9,291, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH).

Covid-19 fatalities stayed at 125.

Meanwhile, seven more patients have recovered from Covid-19, bringing total recoveries to 8,978.

Of overall cases nationwide, the recovery rate now stands at 96.6% while the mortality rate stands at 1.35%.

So far, nine Covid-19 patients are being treated at intensive care unit, with six of them needing ventilator support.

From the six new Covid-19 cases recorded as of noon today, five were locally transmitted cases involving Malaysians in Kedah while one was an imported case involving a foreigner who contracted the virus abroad, according to health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement today.

As for the five locally-transmitted cases, three were from the Tawar cluster, one from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) while the other was from screening of symptomatic cases.

Both the SARI and symptomatic cases were detected in Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital.

Meanwhile as for the lone imported case, Noor Hisham said the foreigner returned from Singapore and the case was detected in Selangor.

With the addition of six new cases found in Selangor and Kedah, this means Selangor now has 2,159 cumulated Covid-19 cases, while Kedah’s total cases rose further to 212.

Elaborating on the Tawar cluster, some 4,051 individuals had been screened up until noon today, with 73 total positive cases detected.

The screening involved 3,154 individuals in Kedah, 526 individuals in Penang and 11 individuals in Perak.

Noor Hisham added that several precautionary measures have been taken by the ministry to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections in the Tawar cluster, especially in Kedah as the state has reported 85% of positive cases out of the total positive cases in the cluster.

He said the steps included active case detection, improving the enforcement on the compliance of standard operating procedures (SOPs), the closure of schools and premises involved for decontamination and disinfection processes, as well as updating the latest Covid-19 situation that involved affected areas.

Edited by Joyce Goh