PETALING JAYA: The new cluster of Covid-19 cases detected at a Cheras flat could be due to visitation activities before and during Hari Raya Aidilfitri, says Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

On Monday (June 1), he confirmed that there were a total of six infections in this new cluster, of which three were residents at the flat while another three were close contacts but did not stay there.

The positive cases were family members and friends of the first case detected in the cluster, said Dr Noor Hisham.

"The reason for infection for this cluster is still under investigation, but there is a big possibility that the Covid-19 transmission had to do with visitation activities before and during Hari Raya Aidilfitri," he said during his daily briefings on Tuesday (June 2).

The first case from this cluster was identified from a screening of tahfiz centre students carried out by the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and the Health Ministry.

"However, from the investigations conducted, no student, teacher or staff from the tahfiz centre had a history of attending the tabligh gathering at Masjid Seri Petaling," he said.

Previously, there were a total of 3,373 Covid-19 cases involving the Masjid Seri Petaling gathering cluster from a total of 41,491 samples taken.

Dr Noor Hisham said the process to identify and screen the close contacts of all six Covid-19 cases at the Cheras flat had been done. A total of 120 people were screened, with six testing positive, 76 negative and another 38 awaiting results.

Meanwhile, out of the 31 still active clusters in Malaysia, two clusters reported new positive cases on Tuesday (June 2), said Dr Noor Hisham.

"The cleaning company cluster reported two cases and the Pedas cluster recorded one case," he said.

On the former inmate at Sungai Buloh prison who recently tested positive for Covid-19, he said the process of active case detection was still ongoing with about 800 individuals at the prison set to undergo screening.

"Active case detection is still ongoing and we are trying to detect the close contacts to the positive case, as well as prison employees, and it's estimated that 800 people in total will be screened," said Dr Noor Hisham.