PETALING JAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysia's Health Ministry has detected a cluster stemming from an individual with a travel history to Italy, says its secretary-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He identified the patient as case number 1,580.
"From that cluster, about 37 people tested Covid-19 positive and there were five related deaths.. and one critical case in the intensive care unit," he told a news conference on Sunday (April 5). "This cluster has infections up to the third generation."
He has previoulsy said that the so-called Tabligh cluster - stemming from a mass gathering at a mosque in Sri Petaling district in Kuala Lumpur at the end of February - had caused some 50 per cent of total cases in Malaysia and half the total deaths.
There were 179 new Covid-19 cases reported on Sunday (April 5), bringing the total to 3,662, he said.
Four more deaths were recorded, bringing total fatalities to 61.
Datuk Dr Noor Hisham urged members of the public to be forthcoming with information should they have any travel history or history of attending gatherings or having close contact with Covid-19 patients.
Dr Noor Hisham said a total of 99 cases were being treated in the intensive care units (ICU) on Sunday and 48 of those cases needed ventilators.
He said that from the new cases reported on Sunday, 46 were linked to the Tabligh gathering in Seri Petaling.
In Italy on Sunday, there were a total of 124,632 Covid-19 cases with 15,362 deaths, according to news reports.
Meanwhile, an Indian television news reported that eight Malaysians who attended a Tabligh gathering in New Delhi were stopped at the Indira Gandhi International Airport from boarding a flight back home.
New Delhi Television (NDTV) reported that the Malaysians were linked to a gathering at Nizamuddin in New Delhi, which is seen as a hotspot for Covid-19 cases in India.
Citing sources, NDTV reported that the Malaysians had been hiding around Delhi after attending the event last month.
The Malaysians will be handed over to the Delhi police and health authorities for further investigations.
