GEORGE TOWN, April 9 — Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow today said there were no new clusters of novel coronavirus (Covid-19) reported in the state to-date.

He said the latest cases in the state, including six new cases yesterday, were due to exposure from an old cluster.

"This is indeed a promising development. We need to make sure that all Covid-19 positive cases emerge during this MCO period,” he said in his daily message on Facebook today.

He said the state has also requested Putrajaya to increase the screening tests for Covid-19 in Penang.

"We must clearly know all Covid-19 positive cases and take appropriate steps including isolating these patients for us to break the transmission chain,” he said.

Chow said there were concerns following an increase of six Covid-19 cases yesterday as opposed to zero or one case in the last few days.

He reminded the public not to be swayed by the number of positive cases as the battle is an "ongoing marathon and not a sprint that ends within a short period of time”.

"Do not ever have a sense of entitlement, or believe that we can relax; we must not let the figures cloud our judgment,” he said.

He said the higher number of cases yesterday was due to an increase in screening tests.

"South Korea has successfully shown containment of this outbreak through, among others, carrying out as many screening tests as possible,” he pointed out.

He said Penang is willing to cooperate with the federal government to implement the proposed approach of carrying out as many screening tests as possible.

He urged everyone to continue supporting the dedicated frontliners and to remain united in complying with the movement control order to battle the spread of Covid-19.

He thanked Mah Sing Group and Man Sing Foundation for donating 30,000 pieces of surgical masks to the state government for distribution to the frontliners in need.

He also thanked Iconic Worldwide Bread for donating 20,000 medical-grade face masks to the state government.