13,000 sporadic Covid-19 cases detected in past 2 weeks: Adham

PETALING JAYA: Health minister Dr Adham Baba says some 13,185 sporadic cases were detected in the past two weeks, making up 66% of total cases during the period.

He said only 33.8% of cases reported came from Covid-19 clusters that had been identified, FMT reported.

“In the past two weeks, a total of 19,936 Covid-19 cases were reported, of which 69% comprised our citizens and 30% comprised foreigners,” he told a press conference today.

He said the health ministry will continue to increase its daily Covid-19 tests and laboratory capacity for Reverse Transcription-Polymerese Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests.

Asked if the interstate travel ban could be lifted soon, Adham said his ministry had made a presentation to the Cabinet on the best way to reopen state borders eventually.

He said this must be based on key indicators like daily cases, recoveries, deaths, the trend of infectivity, the number of beds and intensive care units available as well as the number of frontliners infected.

Meanwhile, science, technology and innovation minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who was also present, gave a reassurance that undocumented migrants coming forward to be vaccinated will not be detained or deported.

He said his ministry had met home ministry officials to discuss the method and strategy to reach out to this community, and would work with United Nations agencies and non-governmental organisations.

“The position of the government is that we will provide the vaccines for free to anyone residing in Malaysia. This includes undocumented migrants, refugees and asylum seekers,” he said.

“We have been having discussions (with NGOs) to ensure that refugees and asylum seekers can come forward in a safe environment to be vaccinated.”

He said the government will soon provide an update on how it intends to reach out and vaccinate this section of the community.

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