Covid-19: Three new school clusters found as Sabah sees increase in daily cases

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah continued to see an increase in daily Covid-19 cases with three new school clusters detected in Tuaran, Lahad Datu and Keningau on Thursday (Jan 27).

State Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the Jalan Kiulu cluster involved a 14-year-old student of SMK Tun Fuad in Tuaran as the index patient.

"So far, 14 more cases have been detected in the cluster based on close contact screening," he said.

Another school cluster in interior Keningau, the Puri Seberang cluster, was detected at SMK Keningau where the index patient was a Form Five student.

Screening led to the detection of 18 other cases there.

Masidi said the third cluster, the Jalan Terusan cluster, was detected at SMK Terusan in Lahad Datu with 10 cases. The index case was a 13-year-old student.

He said all the infected students in the three clusters were segregated and receiving the necessary treatment. None were in serious condition as they were all Category 1 and 2 patients.

Masidi said school clusters remained a current trend for new cases in Sabah, which has a total of seven active clusters.

He added that Sabah registered a total of 342 new cases on Thursday, an increase of seven over Wednesday (Jan 26).

He said new infection numbers were relatively high in each district and it was quite alarming.

He said six districts – Kota Kinabalu (60 cases), Sandakan (40), Kota Marudu (34), Beaufort (34), Tuaran (33) and Putatan (24) – saw an increase.

In total, he said, 11 districts recorded new cases in the double digits, 10 districts fewer than 10 cases each, and six districts did not have any new cases.

Of the 342 new cases, Masidi said 336 were in Category 1 and 2, two in Category 3, four cases in Category 4 and none in Category 5.