Kota Kinabalu: Sabah recorded its sixth education cluster in the last 10 days in Tawau, named as the Jalan Sri Balung Cluster, involving hostel students at SMK Balung.
Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the index case is a Form Four male student who started having symptoms on Jan 19 and later tested positive at a health clinic on Jan 21.
“Screenings on 38 contacts found another 14 students positive, bringing the tally in this cluster thus far to 18. Twenty-two contacts are still awaiting results.
“All infected students are in category one and two, and have been isolated as well as given suitable treatment,” he said.
The last education cluster was recorded three days ago, which was the Jalan Bypass Kologon Cluster in Ranau.
Sabah’s cases nearly tripled to 314 on Tuesday from 118 the day earlier, while three deaths were recorded, one each in Kota Belud, Kota Marudu and Beaufort.
“Based on daily reports and statistics provided by the State Health Department (JKNS), the reason for the sharp increase in new cases on Tuesday is due to the relatively high number of positive screenings among close contacts and new cases from active clusters.
“A total of 64 new cases were from clusters and 143 were among close contacts,” Masidi explained, adding that 91 cases were sporadic infections.
Of the 310 caseload, 220 were fully vaccinated while 33 have gotten their booster shots. 18 were unvaccinated while 43 were ineligible for the vaccine.
On the caseload, Masidi Sandakan topped the list with 68 cases, followed by Kota Kinabalu (61), Beaufort (39), Tuaran (34), Penampang (16), Tawau (16), Papar (15), Kota Marudu (15) and Lahad Datu (11).
“Overall, nine districts recorded new double digit cases, 14 districts recorded single digit cases while four districts did not record any new cases,” he said.
Masidi said 312 out of 314 cases were category one and two infections that do not require hospital treatment, while two cases were in category three. There are no category four and five infections.
Some 177 Covid-19 patients have been discharged from the hospital while 690 patients are currently receiving treatment at hospitals, low risk quarantine and treatment centres (PKRCs), prisons/temporary detention centres and private facilities.
Masidi said 20 patients are under critical care with 16 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)/repurposed critical care and four in the open ward while six patients needed ventilator support.
On Sabah’s immunisation programme, Masidi said 7,106 individuals were vaccinated on Jan 24, of which 7,029 were adults and 77 were teenagers.
“Some 2,453,740 individuals have completed their first dose, of which 76.73 per cent were adults. Some 2,409,624 individuals have completed both doses of the vaccine, of which 76.02 per cent were adults.
He added that 337,195 teenagers have received their first dose, whereas 312,625 teenagers have been fully vaccinated thus far, which is 72.03 per cent of the teenage population.
