Tawar Cluster Now Has More Active COVID-19 Cases Than The Sivaganga Cluster In Kedah

According to Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, four of the new Tawar cluster cases were detected in Kedah, while another three were found in Penang.

"The cases found in Penang are of the third generation," he said in a statement.

This brought the total number of cases in this cluster to 46, surpassing the Sivaganga cluster to become the current largest cluster of active cases in the country.

The cluster emerged after the index case, a 53-year-old businessman from Kedah, attended the funeral ceremony of a deceased family member.

He only tested positive for the coronavirus on 12 August after seeking medical attention for a fever and chest pains.

The MOH has since tracked his movements and carried out active case detection of several of his family members who had attended the funeral and later tested positive. The ministry has screened over 1,135 people, with 251 test results still pending in Kedah, Penang, and Perak.

The four new cases in Kulim, Kedah involved a teacher and three classmates of a 13-year-old girl, who is a family member of the index case.

In Penang, the three cases were visitors of two different patients at a private hospital, who caught the virus from another patient who happened to have close contact with this index case from Kedah.

On the local transmissions, Dr Noor Hisham said one was a case detected in Selangor during screening at Sungai Buloh Hospital and two are from the Sala cluster, which is another new cluster in Kedah that currently has a total of six confirmed patients.

The country's cumulative COVID-19 tally now stands at 9,212 cases.