BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Aug 20 (NNN-ANN) – Brunei reported 190 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, another record daily rise, exceeding 100 cases a day for the first time, and bringing the national tally to 1,136.
According to Brunei’s Ministry of Health, all the new cases are local infections. While the source of infection of 51 new cases is still under investigation, 134 cases are related to 11 active clusters already identified, and the other five local cases are related to one new cluster confirmed yesterday.
The health ministry said, the sharp increase of confirmed cases is due to the ministry obtaining results of outstanding laboratory tests. Among the 190 cases, 150 is the result of 2,280 samples sent for testing earlier in Singapore, which means that only 40 positive cases have been detected by Brunei itself, in the last 24 hours.
All new cases in the active clusters are individuals who are currently being quarantined and were found to be in contact with several confirmed cases.
The health ministry also said, contact tracing for all new cases is still actively running, with a total of 14,238 people identified as close contacts of the recently confirmed cases, an increase of 765 individuals from the previous day.
There are currently 790 active cases being treated and monitored at the National Isolation Centre, with three of them in critical condition, requiring respiratory assistance and 12 other patients under close monitoring.
Before the detection of the local cases on Aug 7, Brunei had kept a record of 457 days without community infections.
Brunei also reported five recoveries yesterday. There have been a total of 343 recovered patients and three deaths reported so far in the country.– NNN-ANN
