60 festival clusters reported within 4 weeks

Sixty festival clusters, 58 involving Hari Raya Aidilfitri and two involving Hari Gawai celebrations, were reported between May 13 and June 10.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 13,023 individuals from these clusters had been screened, with 3,511 or 27% of them testing positive for Covid-19.

Of these, 20 fatalities were reported with 11 cases still being treated in the ICU.

“The states recording the highest number of festival clusters are Sabah with 11 clusters or 18.3%, Sarawak (eight/13.3%) and Kedah (seven/11.7%).

“The increase in reported cases and fatalities from the festival clusters is regarded as serious and worrying as it occurred within a short time.

“If the people are still complacent and not learning lessons from doing house visits and interstate travel during festival celebrations, it’s not impossible for sudden surge in cases to occur in this country,” he said in a statement.

Noor Hisham said everyone should be responsible for protecting the vulnerable groups, especially their weak and sick parents in their home towns by not exposing them to the virus.

He said Malaysia should follow its neighbours which have managed to control their Covid-19 situations well, thus proving the cooperation among all parties concerned and a high level of compliance with the SOPs so that life can return to normal.

“Malaysians are urged to stay home if there is no urgent need to go out. Register yourself and your family members to receive the Covid-19 vaccine for herd immunity and to create a safer environment for all levels of society,” he added.