Covid-19: Why Selangor Has The Most Cases & Which District Is Being Hit The Worst

Population density in urban areas cited as reason for infection rise.

Fahrul Azmi/Unsplash

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The state of Selangor remains the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in Malaysia as daily Covid-19 cases nationwide soared to 5,725 new infections on 29 January 2021.

The state saw a tremendous jump in daily cases from 1,577 infections on 28 January, to 3,126 cases the following day – the highest recorded so far.

Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari explained that the sudden jump in cases was due to a backlog of identified infections that were not recorded in real-time.

He said that for a period of 10 days, positive cases detected at factories and prisons as well as from private clinics and hospitals were not reported directly to the State Health Department (JKNS).

To avoid this problem in the future, the MB said that JKNS will issue fines to private medical facilities that fail to report positive cases within 24 hours.

He added that Selangor would also introduce the Preventing Outbreak at Ignition Site (POIS) program in order to conduct Covid-19 screenings at factories and workplaces that have the potential to cause outbreaks.

Saya telah memanggil mesyuarat khas berikutan peningkatan kes COVID-19 semalam. Peningkatan kes disumbang oleh kes kumulatif dari saringan pekerja kilang, saringan di penjara serta saringan di klinik dan hospital swasta yg tidak dilaporkan secara terus. Ini menyebabkan ‘backlog’ pic.twitter.com/910iC7A1a1
— Amirudin Shari (@AmirudinShari) January 30, 2021

Selangor presently has 7,599 active cases with 62,189 infections reported in total. There are also currently 932 active Covid-19 clusters across the state.

Red across the board

All nine districts in Selangor are currently classified as red zones with multiple areas having more than 41 active cases in the span of two weeks.

Data provided by the Selangor Task Force Covid-19 (STFC) between 16 to 29 January detailed that there are 29 sub-districts marked as red zones, eight orange zones (21 to 40 cases). 12 yellow zones (one to 20 cases), and 7 remaining green zones (zero cases).

The district of Petaling showed the highest number of active infections in the last 14 days with 6,481 cases, followed by Hulu Langat with 3,408 cases, Klang with 2,476 cases, Sepang with 1,665 cases, Gombak with 1,187 cases, Kuala Langat with 925 cases, Kuala Selangor with 702 cases, Hulu Selangor with 274 cases, and Sabak Bernam with 119 cases.

Packed into place

Amirudin Shari explains that population density or the number of people living within a particular area, are among the contributing factors to the continued rise in cases across the state and this was especially so in urban areas.

Targeted community screening

Amirudin Shari also mentioned that the Selangor State Government with the help of the Health Ministry (MOH) aims to increase the number of Covid-19 screenings within the community to identify and isolate infected patients.

Recently, the Selangor government announced its RM73.877 million “Pakej Kita Selangor” economic stimulus plan to assist the rakyat during the pandemic.

The package included a RM 6 million allocation to implement free targeted screening tests for 50,000 citizens in Selangor.

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