KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 16 — The hundreds of Covid-19 cases in the Damanlela cluster here were all from a construction work site and have not spread to the surrounding community, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

In his press briefing today, Dr Noor Hisham said contact tracing among the cluster’s 385 cases showed that the infections remain restricted to the work site at the moment.

Earlier, he reported 1,103 new Covid-19 cases in the country, of which 544 were detected in KL, Selangor and Putrajaya.

"Looking at the Klang Valley, it is not in the community yet, it is still within the construction site, we have not seen any individuals involved, for example, near the Damanlela cluster, it is mainly confined to the construction workers,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said the index patient in the Damanlela cluster was a registered migrant worker employed at the construction and who tested positive for Covid-19 after being arrested.

A stop-work order was placed on the work site between November 7 and today. Close contacts of the Covid-19 patients were all under quarantine, he said.

Kuala Lumpur has two active clusters: the Damanlela cluster and the Merpati cluster that has 52 cases.

So far, the authorities have screened 3,069 people connected to the Damanlela cluster and found 747 positive cases. All but 13 were migrant workers.