COVID-19 is no joke! Over 700,000 people have been infected with the virus since the pandemic hit Malaysia.
Now, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Klang Valley has recorded the highest number of infections in the country in the 24th epidemiological week.
Photo via Malaysiakini
In case you don’t know, an epidemiological week or “epi weeks” are simply a standardized method for numbering weeks as a period of time to group epidemiological events.
Out of the 578,105 COVID-19 cases from January 1st to June 19th, which is 24 epi weeks, 398,846 or 69% were identified as sporadic infections, which means the infected person did not have any travel history to affected countries or contact with an infected person.
DG Hisham said that Kuala Lumpur and Selangor recorded 151,725 (38%) and 44,517 cases (11.2%), respectively, followed by Sarawak with 40,889 (10.3%).
“The districts with the most sporadic cases were Petaling with 3,905, Hulu Langat with 2,783 and Klang with 2,482, which is all in Selangor.
“The sporadic cases and COVID-19 clusters map distribution in the Klang Valley from epi week 13 to 24 showed an increase of infections. Its distribution has been widespread and more significant,” he said as reported by New Straits Times.
He also added that although the Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 was announced on May 12th (epi week 19) had successfully controlled the rise of clusters, however, sporadic cases have not shown any significant signs of decrease.
Photo via The Edge Market
Despite it being the third week of the full lockdown, the daily COVID-19 cases were still high at 4,000 cases a day and the percentage of sporadic cases were also high, said DG Hisham.
“What is more worrying is that most of these sporadic cases are asymptomatic, which means one can infect anyone around them who do not practice the correct SOPs and due to the densely populated Klang Valley, people are not only exposed to the danger of sporadic cases but also asymptomatic COVID-19 cases,” he added.
In other words, it’s hard to know who has been infected by the virus. You might be positive for the virus right now but you don’t even know it since you’re not showing any symptoms. How scary, kan?!
So, guys, it’s always important that we follow the SOPs that have been implemented when we’re out running errands.
We’re all in this together! Stay at home and stay safe!
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
