LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered England back into a national lockdown on Saturday (Oct 31) after the United Kingdom passed the milestone of 1 million COVID-19 cases and a second wave of infections threatened to overwhelm the health service.
The United Kingdom, which has the biggest official death toll in Europe from COVID-19, is grappling with more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases a day and scientists have warned the "worst case" scenario of 80,000 dead could be exceeded.
Johnson, at a hastily convened news conference in Downing Street after news of a lockdown leaked to local media, said that the one-month lockdown across England will kick in at a minute past midnight on Thursday morning and last until Dec 2.
In some of the most onerous restrictions in Britain's peacetime history, people will only be allowed to leave home for specific reasons such as education, work, exercise, shopping for essentials and medicines or caring for the vulnerable.
"Now is the time to take action because there is no alternative," Johnson said, flanked by his chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, and his chief scientific adviser, Patrick Vallance.
"Unless we act, we could see deaths in this country running at several thousand a day."
The government will revive its emergency coronavirus wage subsidy scheme to ensure workers who are temporarily laid off during a new England-wide lockdown receive 80 per cent of their pay.
Essential shops, schools, and universities will remain open, Johnson said, and while elite sports will continue, amateur sports for adults and children will be asked to stop.
Pubs and restaurants will be shut apart from for takeaways, and outbound international travel will be discouraged except for work. All non-essential retail will close.
Places of worship will remain open for private prayer, though funerals will be limited to close family members only.
Johnson's imposition of stricter curbs came after scientists warned the outbreak was going in the wrong direction and that action was needed to halt the spread of the virus if families were to have any hope of gathering at Christmas.
The measures bring England into alignment with France and Germany by imposing nationwide restrictions almost as severe as the ones that drove the global economy this year into its deepest recession in generations.
Johnson was criticised by political opponents for moving too slowly into the first national lockdown, which stretched from Mar 23 to Jul 4. He fell ill with COVID in late March and was hospitalised in early April.
A national lockdown represents a dramatic change of policy for the prime minister, who has been saying for months that it will not be necessary.
Two weeks ago he defended his strategy of a patchwork of local restrictions by saying he wanted to avoid the "misery of a national lockdown". Currently, areas of England are subject to one of three tiers of coronavirus restrictions.
"I am optimistic that this will feel very different and better by the spring," Johnson said, adding that there was realistic hope of a vaccine in the first quarter of next year.
Asked by reporters what took him so long to impose a national lockdown, Johnson said it was a constant struggle to balance the risk to life and the risk to livelihoods.
"We have to mindful the whole time of the scarring and the long-term economic impact of the measures," Johnson said. His medical adviser Whitty said that without the tougher measures then the National Health Service could be overwhelmed.
Keir Starmer, the opposition Labour leader, who called for a lockdown two weeks ago, said the delay introducing the restrictions will come "at an economic cost and a human cost".
Lawmakers are expected to vote on the proposals on Wednesday.
The new lockdown will heap more pressure on finance minister Rishi Sunak and the Bank of England to increase their already huge support for the UK economy, the world's sixth-biggest. The economy slumped a record 20% in the spring.
So far, the United Kingdom has reported 46,555 COVID-19 deaths - defined as those dying within 28 days of a positive test. A broader measure of those with COVID-19 on their death certificates puts the toll at 58,925.
The United Kingdom has the world's fifth largest official death toll, after the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.
LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to order England back into a national lockdown as the United Kingdom passed the grim milestone of one million COVID-19 cases and scientists warned the virus was spreading faster than their worst predictions.
The United Kingdom, which has the biggest official death toll in Europe from COVID-19, is grappling with more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases a day and scientists have warned the "worst case" scenario of 80,000 dead could be exceeded.
As Johnson prepared for a hastily arranged news conference in Downing Street after news of the lockdown leaked to local media, the government said total confirmed COVID-19 cases had risen 21,915 in the past day to 1,011,660.
Johnson held a cabinet meeting on Saturday (Oct 31) after government scientists warned the outbreak was going in the wrong direction and that action was needed to halt the spread of the virus if families were to have any hope of gathering at Christmas.
The Times newspaper said Johnson might announce that only essential shops, nurseries, schools and universities will remain open in a month-long lockdown. Johnson's office declined to comment.Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own pandemic policies.
Johnson was criticised by political opponents for moving too slowly into the first national lockdown, which stretched from Mar 23 to Jul 4. He fell ill with COVID-19 in late March and was hospitalised in early April.
The measures bring England into alignment with France and Germany by imposing nationwide restrictions almost as severe as the ones that drove the global economy earlier this year into its deepest recession in generations.
A national lockdown would represent a dramatic change of policy for the prime minister, who has been saying for months that it will not be necessary.
Two weeks ago he defended his strategy of a patchwork of local restrictions by saying he wanted to avoid the "misery of a national lockdown". Currently, areas of England are subject to one of three tiers of coronavirus restrictions.
Calum Semple, professor of outbreak medicine at the University of Liverpool and member of the government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said the second wave of COVID-19 was a reality.
"And, unlike the first wave, where we had a national lockdown which protected huge swathes of society, this outbreak is now running riot across all age groups," he told the BBC.
A new lockdown would heap more pressure on finance minister Rishi Sunak and the Bank of England to increase their already huge support for the UK economy, the world's sixth-biggest. The economy slumped a record 20per cent in the spring and has been struggling to maintain its recovery.
So far the United Kingdom has reported 46,555 COVID-19 deaths - defined as those dying within 28 days of a positive test. A broader measure of those with COVID-19 on their death certificates puts the toll at 58,925.
JAKARTA: Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Saturday (Oct 31) condemned what he called "terrorist" attacks in France, but also warned that remarks by President Emmanuel Macron had "insulted Islam" and "hurt the unity of Muslims everywhere".
Conservative Islamic organisations in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, have called for protests and boycotts against France, sharing an image of Macron as a red-eyed devilish snail.
"Freedom of speech that injures the noble purity and sacred values and symbol of religion is so wrong, it shouldn’t be justified and it needs to stop," the Indonesian leader, who is known by his popular name Jokowi, said in a televised address.
He added, however, that "linking religion to acts of terrorism is a massive mistake. Terrorists are terrorists".
A knife-wielding Tunisian man beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday.
The attack came less than two weeks after a middle-school teacher in a Paris suburb was beheaded by an 18-year-old attacker who was apparently incensed by the teacher showing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad in class.
Macron has vowed to stand firm against attacks on French values and freedom of belief, but some of his comments both prior to and after the recent attacks - including calling Islam "a religion in crisis all over the world" - have proved controversial.
Jokowi did not specify which of Macron's comments he was referring to in his address on Saturday.
An Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Saturday the ministry had summoned the French ambassador on Tuesday over remarks by Macron they said "insulted Islam" and the fact he allowed publication of the cartoons.
Tens of thousands of Muslims in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, and the Palestinian territories protested against France on Friday.
Dining domes at Capitol Singapore Outdoor Plaza in Singapore. (PHOTO: Then Chih Wey/Xinhua via Getty Images)
SINGAPORE — The Ministry of Health (MOH) confirmed 12 new COVID-19 cases in Singapore as of Saturday (31 October) noon, taking its total case count to 58,015.
There are no new cases of locally-transmitted COVID-19 infection.
“There are 12 imported cases, who had all been placed on Stay-Home Notice or isolated upon arrival in Singapore,” said the ministry.
More details will be provided later at night, said the MOH.
This story will be updated later.
99% of total cases have recovered; none in ICU
With 10 more patients discharged from hospitals or community isolation facilities on Friday, 57,909 cases – or 99.8 per cent of the total – have fully recovered from the infection.
Most of the 42 hospitalised cases are stable or improving, while none is in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
A total of 24 patients with mild symptoms or are clinically well but still test positive are isolated and cared for at community facilities.
Apart from 28 patients who have died from COVID-19 complications, 15 others who tested positive for the virus were determined to have died from unrelated causes, including three whose deaths were attributed to a heart attack and another four, whose deaths were attributed to coronary heart disease.
The other locations are BLS International in International Plaza, Jetspeed Travel, and McDonald's outlets in City Square and Hillion malls.
H&M in Jem was visited on two occasions, while Uniqlo in the same mall was visited once.
MOH provides the list of locations that infectious Covid-19 patients visited for at least 30 minutes and the times they visited to get people who were at those places at the same time to monitor their health for two weeks from the date of their visit.
The full list of locations and times can be found on Gov.sg.
An asymptomatic 20-year-old permanent resident was the only community case. His infection was detected when he took a pre-departure Covid-19 test on Tuesday prior to a planned trip to India.
There were seven imported cases, comprising one permanent resident, one long-term visit pass holder, three work pass holders, a work permit holder and a special pass holder.
The number of new cases in the community has increased from two cases in the week before to four in the past week.
The number of unlinked cases in the community in a week has also increased from one case to four over the same period.
With 10 cases discharged on Friday, 57,894 patients have fully recovered. A total of 42 patients remain in hospital, while 24 are recuperating in community facilities.
Singapore has had 28 deaths from Covid-19 complications, while 15 who tested positive have died of other causes.
SINGAPORE: It was one of his early proclamations in office: “Trade wars are good and easy to win.”
And since United States President Donald Trump came into power four years ago, international trade — the lifeblood of Asia — has come under tremendous stress.
He has taken a tough line, most prominently, with China, by imposing tariffs on the country as well as sanctions against tech giant Huawei and popular apps TikTok and WeChat.
After the Trump administration blacklisted Huawei last year and barred it from buying vital American components, Wist Plastic and Metal Technology Limited, one of the suppliers of Huawei’s phone parts, saw a third of its revenue evaporate.
“We’ve co-operated with Huawei for many years. In the first half of this year, there was some impact on orders. Exports declined,” said Kin Xiong, the general manager of its Shenzhen factory.
The US-China trade war not only hampered Huawei’s immediate expansion plans, but also forced the supplier to turn to the domestic Chinese market to help the business stay afloat.
With just a few days until the 2020 US presidential election, Asia is waiting with anxiety and a big question: What will the result mean for the continent?
The programme Insight finds out what impact Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s foreign policies may have on Asia if he is chosen, or if Trump is re-elected, whether it means more storms ahead.
WATCH: US Election 2020 — who are folks in China backing, Trump or Biden? (4:00)
NO WINNERS IN TRADE WAR
While Trump has “made a big issue” of the US’ trade deficit, David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L Thornton China Centre, thinks “the general sense in America now” is that the many trade wars have “failed”.
“The US trade deficit just gets bigger and bigger,” said Dollar. “So that hasn’t worked.”
In August, the trade deficit rose to its highest level in 14 years, at US$67.1 billion (S$91.7 billion).
There has been no clear winner between the US and China either. In the US, the trade war has led to higher prices for consumers and financial difficulties for farmers.
In China, it has contributed to a slowdown in economic and industrial output growth.
There has also been an absence of the US from multilateral trade arrangements with Asian nations, with the country retreating and becoming increasingly protectionist.
“The region as a whole also suffers because of the fixation of the Trump administration on trade deficits and bilateral trade deals,” said Joseph Liow, Dean of the Nanyang Technological University’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
For example, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which includes countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, aims to deepen ties among the participating nations and help open up trade in goods and services.
But by abandoning the free trade deal shortly after his inauguration in 2017, Trump has distanced the US from East Asia.
“Most of Asia have become losers in the trade war because … trade requires stability and predictability,” said Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
“But with Trump, you can’t tell what’s going to happen two weeks from now … So that instability and unpredictability is bad for East Asia.”
Professor Kishore Mahbubani.
CAN BIDEN MAKE IT BETTER?
In contrast, Biden has pledged to reverse some of Trump’s policies. That includes rejoining the World Health Organisation and the Paris Agreement on climate change, and restoring American leadership on the world stage.
“What you’d see in the Biden administration is re-engagement with the world (and) some rationalisation of our trade war (with) China, hopefully ratcheting down the tariffs,” said Dollar.
Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, thinks countries in Asia would prefer a US president with “more credibility” and who would “take their interests into account”.
“There is, at least in some capitals in Asia, a desire to see (that) the next president be Biden,” she said.
Bonnie Glaser.
If Biden wins, the “short-term gain” for China is that he “won’t be so erratic, so impulsive” and would manage the trade war “more carefully”, said Mahbubani.
“But in the long run, he’s bad for China because the Western allies will come back to the US.”
Trump winning re-election, on the other hand, would be “more painful for China” in the short term, but not in the long run.
“A very senior Western figure … told me, ‘Kishore, if Donald Trump is re-elected, it’s the end of the West — the Western alliance would crash,’” said the professor.
“And if it crashes, that’s a gift to China, right? There can’t be a united Western approach to China.”
The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949. Today, it is in a great power competition with the United States.
Whether it is a Biden or a Trump government, however, there will be no change in US policy on regarding China as a strategic rival.
Trump is the “first president to stand up to China comprehensively”, and the Democrats largely have not opposed him “bashing China”, said Mahbubani. “So it has a complete bipartisan consensus.”
US attitudes towards China “started hardening even before Trump was elected”, noted Dollar, who expects “some of the technology measures, security issues (and) human rights concerns” to remain if Biden wins.
“It isn’t going to be a warm and fuzzy relationship with China,” he said.
POSSIBLE CONTROVERSY AHEAD
So far, several opinion polls seem to show that Biden is ahead of Trump. But a presidential candidate can win the popular vote but lose the election.
Donald Trump won the US presidency without winning the popular vote.
This last happened in 2016, when Hillary Clinton led in the polling data and won the popular vote, but Trump became president because of the Electoral College.
This is an American system that allots electoral votes to the 50 states and the District of Columbia. There are 538 electoral votes in total, and a presidential candidate must secure 270 to win the race to the White House.
So despite Biden’s lead in the opinion polls, there is a looming sense of deja vu.
But there is also a “big difference now”, says Mahbubani. “Trump’s made it very clear that he doesn’t think he’s lost the election. He may not accept the results, and that’s something that America’s never faced before,” he points out.
The use of postal ballots, which Trump has attacked, may be the spark for an electoral controversy. And a wave of uncertainty caused by a protracted stand-off may cause chaos and volatility in the markets and beyond.
“There (are) all kinds of horror scenarios that could be played out,” adds Mahbubani. “Do you send the military in to remove President Trump? What do you do? It’s an amazing scenario … Things could get very, very bad.”
The world may have to brace itself for an inconclusive election outcome, and Asia may have to keep waiting for the answers it seeks.
SINGAPORE: It was one of his early proclamations in office: “Trade wars are good and easy to win.”
And since United States President Donald Trump came into power four years ago, international trade — the lifeblood of Asia — has come under tremendous stress.
He has taken a tough line, most prominently, with China, by imposing tariffs on the country as well as sanctions against tech giant Huawei and popular apps TikTok and WeChat.
After the Trump administration blacklisted Huawei last year and barred it from buying vital American components, Wist Plastic and Metal Technology Limited, one of the suppliers of Huawei’s phone parts, saw a third of its revenue evaporate.
“We’ve co-operated with Huawei for many years. In the first half of this year, there was some impact on orders. Exports declined,” said Kin Xiong, the general manager of its Shenzhen factory.
The US-China trade war not only hampered Huawei’s immediate expansion plans, but also forced the supplier to turn to the domestic Chinese market to help the business stay afloat.
With just a few days until the 2020 US presidential election, Asia is waiting with anxiety and a big question: What will the result mean for the continent?
The programme Insight finds out what impact Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s foreign policies may have on Asia if he is chosen, or if Trump is re-elected, whether it means more storms ahead.
WATCH: US Election 2020 — who are folks in China backing, Trump or Biden? (4:00)
NO WINNERS IN TRADE WAR
While Trump has “made a big issue” of the US’ trade deficit, David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s John L Thornton China Centre, thinks “the general sense in America now” is that the many trade wars have “failed”.
“The US trade deficit just gets bigger and bigger,” said Dollar. “So that hasn’t worked.”
In August, the trade deficit rose to its highest level in 14 years, at US$67.1 billion (S$91.7 billion).
There has been no clear winner between the US and China either. In the US, the trade war has led to higher prices for consumers and financial difficulties for farmers.
In China, it has contributed to a slowdown in economic and industrial output growth.
There has also been an absence of the US from multilateral trade arrangements with Asian nations, with the country retreating and becoming increasingly protectionist.
“The region as a whole also suffers because of the fixation of the Trump administration on trade deficits and bilateral trade deals,” said Joseph Liow, Dean of the Nanyang Technological University’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
For example, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which includes countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, aims to deepen ties among the participating nations and help open up trade in goods and services.
But by abandoning the free trade deal shortly after his inauguration in 2017, Trump has distanced the US from East Asia.
“Most of Asia have become losers in the trade war because … trade requires stability and predictability,” said Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.
“But with Trump, you can’t tell what’s going to happen two weeks from now … So that instability and unpredictability is bad for East Asia.”
Professor Kishore Mahbubani.
CAN BIDEN MAKE IT BETTER?
In contrast, Biden has pledged to reverse some of Trump’s policies. That includes rejoining the World Health Organisation and the Paris Agreement on climate change, and restoring American leadership on the world stage.
“What you’d see in the Biden administration is re-engagement with the world (and) some rationalisation of our trade war (with) China, hopefully ratcheting down the tariffs,” said Dollar.
Bonnie Glaser, the director of the China Power Project at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, thinks countries in Asia would prefer a US president with “more credibility” and who would “take their interests into account”.
“There is, at least in some capitals in Asia, a desire to see (that) the next president be Biden,” she said.
Bonnie Glaser.
If Biden wins, the “short-term gain” for China is that he “won’t be so erratic, so impulsive” and would manage the trade war “more carefully”, said Mahbubani.
“But in the long run, he’s bad for China because the Western allies will come back to the US.”
Trump winning re-election, on the other hand, would be “more painful for China” in the short term, but not in the long run.
“A very senior Western figure … told me, ‘Kishore, if Donald Trump is re-elected, it’s the end of the West — the Western alliance would crash,’” said the professor.
“And if it crashes, that’s a gift to China, right? There can’t be a united Western approach to China.”
The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949. Today, it is in a great power competition with the United States.
Whether it is a Biden or a Trump government, however, there will be no change in US policy on regarding China as a strategic rival.
Trump is the “first president to stand up to China comprehensively”, and the Democrats largely have not opposed him “bashing China”, said Mahbubani. “So it has a complete bipartisan consensus.”
US attitudes towards China “started hardening even before Trump was elected”, noted Dollar, who expects “some of the technology measures, security issues (and) human rights concerns” to remain if Biden wins.
“It isn’t going to be a warm and fuzzy relationship with China,” he said.
POSSIBLE CONTROVERSY AHEAD
So far, several opinion polls seem to show that Biden is ahead of Trump. But a presidential candidate can win the popular vote but lose the election.
Donald Trump won the US presidency without winning the popular vote.
This last happened in 2016, when Hillary Clinton led in the polling data and won the popular vote, but Trump became president because of the Electoral College.
This is an American system that allots electoral votes to the 50 states and the District of Columbia. There are 538 electoral votes in total, and a presidential candidate must secure 270 to win the race to the White House.
So despite Biden’s lead in the opinion polls, there is a looming sense of deja vu.
But there is also a “big difference now”, says Mahbubani. “Trump’s made it very clear that he doesn’t think he’s lost the election. He may not accept the results, and that’s something that America’s never faced before,” he points out.
The use of postal ballots, which Trump has attacked, may be the spark for an electoral controversy. And a wave of uncertainty caused by a protracted stand-off may cause chaos and volatility in the markets and beyond.
“There (are) all kinds of horror scenarios that could be played out,” adds Mahbubani. “Do you send the military in to remove President Trump? What do you do? It’s an amazing scenario … Things could get very, very bad.”
The world may have to brace itself for an inconclusive election outcome, and Asia may have to keep waiting for the answers it seeks.
He defended himself on Friday, saying that his next sentence that Muslims didn’t take revenge though they had the right to, were left out by the media.
And he said that his plea for France to show respect to people’s beliefs were also cast aside in the rush to attack him.
Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister James Masing responding to news reports over the comments on killing French people said: "The law of civilised nations is that no one is allowed to take the law into their own hands, let alone take somebody's life just because that person happens to disagree with his beliefs or stance on certain issues."
He added: "Mahathir's comments on the killing of non-Muslims in France is a reflection of who he is as a person. It's not Malaysian. We live and abide by the rule of law."
Tun Dr Mahathir's comments came at a time of heightened tensions in France, soon after two people died in Nice's towering neo-Gothic basilica, including a 60-year-old woman who was nearly decapitated, and a third victim died after taking refuge in a nearby bar.
The United States Ambassador to Malaysia, Ms Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir, on Friday extended her condolences to the French victims. She added: "I strongly disagree with Tun Dr Mahathir's recent statement. Freedom of expression is a right, calling for violence is not."
On Dr Mahathir's blog, some 6,000 angry comments followed his series of comments..
One commenter said" "Is this the language of a respected leader...?????? It's totally violent".
The tweet by Dr Mahathir had these words immediately after writing that Muslims had the right to kill millions of French, that "by and large the Muslims have not applied the 'eye for an eye' law. Muslims don't. The French shouldn't. Instead the French should teach their people to respect other people's feelings."
But irrespective of the religion professed, angry people kill. The French in the course of their history has killed millions of people. Many were Muslims.
But these have been drowned out by what many see as his call for violence.
New York Times in a report about the issue in France wrote that "what many French people see as their country's uncompromising defence of its safety and free expression, many Muslims consider to be scapegoating and blasphemous insults to their religion".
Former premier Najib Razak, who was toppled from power in 2018 by Dr Mahathir, tweeted on Friday: "The world should calm down and read @chedetofficial's statement in its full context", referring to Dr Mahathir's blog.
"I'm sure he didn't mean exactly what he said," Najib said. "And even if he did, it's his personal opinion, not Malaysia's."
However, Najib said he agreed with the opinion that Dr Mahathir's social media accounts should be taken away from him before he does "more damage".
Dr Mahathir in separate comments to defend himself said: "Because of the spin and out of context presentation by those that picked up my posting, reports were made against me and I am accused of promoting violence etc… on Facebook and Twitter."
He spoke against Facebook and Twitter as "purveyors of freedom" that only allowed one side of an argument.
"On the one hand, they defended those who chose to display offending caricatures of Prophet Muhammad and expect all Muslims to swallow it in the name of freedom of speech and expression. On the other, they deleted deliberately that Muslims had never sought revenge for the injustice against them in the past."
Dr Mahathir added: "Even my appeal that the French should explain the need to advise their people to be sensitive and respect the beliefs of other people is left out. What is promoted by these reaction to my article is to stir French hatred for Muslims."
In Indonesia, its Foreign Ministry said in a statement: "Indonesia condemns the statements made by the President of France that are disrespectful towards Islam and the Muslim community worldwide. The statement has offended over two billion Muslims globally and has sparked division among different faiths in the world.
"Freedom of expression should not be exercised in ways that tarnish the honour, sanctity and sacredness of religious values and symbols.
JOHOR BARU (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - The Johor Baru district has been declared a red zone after the number of Covid-19 cases surpassed 40 in the span of 14 days.
Johor health and environment committee chairman R. Vidyananthan said monitoring and surveillance efforts would be boosted because of an expected increase in the number of cases in the near future.
"The Johor Baru district was declared a red zone on Thursday (Oct 29). Based on information, most of the cases reported involved the spread of the disease among family members and at workplaces.
"Because of this, the state health department has placed the institutions involved under a home surveillance order.
"Ten new Covid-19 cases were reported on Thursday, including nine cases from existing clusters and one from other screenings," he said in a statement on Friday.
Mr Vidyananthan noted that there are currently three active clusters in Johor, namely the Bayu, Kempas and Rinting clusters.
"The cumulative number of positive cases for the Bayu cluster remains at eight as at Thursday, which involved three work colleagues and five of their family members," he said, adding that 104 close contacts have been identified from the cluster.
He added that the Kempas cluster has recorded some 42 cases, involving eight work colleagues, 17 of their family members, 11 colleagues of their family members, five students and one of the student's family members.
Meanwhile, the Rinting cluster recorded 10 cases that involved two colleagues, six of their family members and two friends of their children.
Separately, a primary school in Johor Baru has been told to shut down for a week after one of its pupils tested positive for Covid-19.
A notice on the matter was issued to students, parents and teachers on Thursday.
"Since early March, the school has taken the necessary precautions to avoid Covid-19, and will continue to do so.
"Unfortunately, on Thursday, the Health Ministry confirmed the spread of the disease in the school," said the notice.
It added that the Johor Education Department had ordered the school to shut down for seven days, starting from Friday (Oct 30) to Thursday (Nov 5) as a safety measure.
It was learnt that a Primary 4 student tested positive for Covid-19 and has been sent to hospital for treatment and isolation.
When contacted, state education, information, heritage and culture committee chairman Mazlan Bujang confirmed the closure of the school.
