Kota Kinabalu: A potential major Covid-19 cluster involving a detention centre in Kota Kinabalu saw hundreds of new cases as Sabah registered 529 new patients but no deaths on Saturday, data from the Ministry of Health showed.
The Rumah Merah cluster recorded 111 new cases, the highest daily increase among Malaysia’s clusters, and raised its total cases to 168 out of 333 individuals screened so far in the often-reportedly cramped facility for illegal immigrants.
It is feared the Rumah Merah cluster will become another big cluster in Sabah after the Kepayan Prison and Benteng LD clusters, both Sabah’s biggest two clusters also involving detention facilities with over 1,000 total cases each.
Kepayan Prison had 26 new cases Saturday, raising its total to 1,702, while Benteng LD had been having no new fresh cases lately including today.
Meanwhile, a cluster involving a floating Petronas liquefied natural gas facility saw two new cases and has spread to a second Sarawak district, Daro.
Apart from another Sarawak district, Miri, the Sauh cluster is also in Kota Kinabalu and Papar and has 32 total cases, of which, 12 are still active and 20 discharged patients out of 403 individuals screened.
Another cluster, called Samudera, involving the Navy's staff quarters in Sandakan, had three new cases, while the Telipok cluster, which involved rice mill workers in Kota Kinabalu, had four new patients.
The Inai cluster in Kudat, sparked by a majlis berinai or traditional Muslim marriage ceremony of adorning the bride and groom’s hands with henna, had eight new cases, increasing its total to 58, of whom, 26 were still active patients.
Altogether, 205 new cases were found in 14 Sabah clusters.
Meanwhile, Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan saw triple-digit spikes today at 186 and 109 cases respectively with Kudat also seeing a sharp increase at 35.
Of Sabah’s total new cases, 205 were close contacts and 121 other screening cases.
