PUTRAJAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) – Malaysia on Tuesday (Sept 8) announced 100 new Covid-19 cases, the highest in the three months since the government relaxed movement curbs on June 10.

Sixty-two of the new cases came from the Benteng Lahad Datu (LD) cluster in Sabah that originated from detention centres.

Malaysia relaxed its movement control order (MCO) after 48 days.

It started the recovery MCO on June 10 by allowing most business to reopen and social activities to restart, as long as they follow healthcare protocols such as social distancing and the measuring of temperatures when entering a public building.

The 100 cases was by far the biggest single-day increase throughout the recovery MCO, overtaking Monday’s 62 new cases, in a day.

The LD cluster in Sabah were detected recently, with all those affected being prisoners, said the Health Ministry’s director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The cluster originated from two undocumented Filipino migrants who were under detention at the Lahad Datu police headquarters’ lock-up.

Dr Noor Hisham said that of the 62 new cases under the LD cluster, 32 were foreigners while 30 are Malaysians.

In total, the cluster has 128 confirmed cases so far.

No deaths were reported, which means the Covid-19 death toll in Malaysia remains at 128, or at a fatality rate of 1.34 per cent.

The first cases were found following a Covid-19 screening conducted on detainees at the Lahad Datu police headquarters.

The cases spread to Tawau prison some 150km away after some detainees with a travel history to Lahad Datu infected other inmates there.

Malaysia now has a cumulative total of 9,559 cases since the outbreak began in January, with 12 patients discharged on Tuesday.

The total number of active cases in the country is now at 295 cases.

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