KOTA KINABALU: Sabah recorded 2,136 new Covid-19 cases and 33 deaths on Sunday.
The fatalities were reported in Tawau (12), Kota Kinabalu (7), Kalabakan (3), Tuaran (3), Lahad Datu (2), Penampang (2) and one each in Kudat, Papar, Putatan and Semporna.
Two new clusters were reported, namely Koyah Cluster in Kinabatangan and Pagar Sebrang Cluster in Keningau.
Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun said Kota Kinabalu registered the most cases with 357 infections, followed by Sandakan (332), Papar (211), Tawau (157), Lahad Datu (116), Kota Marudu (108) and Tuaran (102).
He said close contact screenings remained the main contributor to the daily cases, comprising 1,280 cases or close to 60 per cent of the 2,136 new infections, where 569 cases (26.6 per cent) were detected from symptomatic screening and 68 cases from clusters.
He said symptomatic screenings constituted 37 per cent of the cases in Kota Kinabalu, 33.7 per cent in Tawau, 32.6 per cent in Penampang and 27.7 per cent in Sandakan.
Of the 2,136 daily cases, he said 45 per cent (962) were cases registered two to three days after the results were known, 4.8 per cent (102) were cases registered between four and five days and 6.7 per cent (144) were backlogs over five days.
Masidi, who is Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson, added the number of patients under Category 3, 4, and five was still considered high.
On Sunday, he said 1,688 patients (32.2 per cent) fell under Category 1, 1261 patients (59 per cent) under Category 2, 15 patients under Category 3, 10 patients under Category 4 and 13 patients under Category 5.
He said 1,847 (86.5) of the new cases were Malaysians and 289 (13.5 per cent) were foreigners. Male and female patients comprised 51.6 and 48.4 per cent respectively.
On the clusters, Masidi said the Koyah Cluster was a workplace cluster in an oil palm plantation in Mukim Sukau, Kinabatangan. The index case is a 43-year-old male general worker who tested positive on August 20 after experiencing symptoms three days ago. To date, 25 positive cases have been detected among his social contacts, including 19 new cases.
The Pagar Sebrang Cluster was in a detention centre and involved mukim Sebrang, Lingkudau and Luagan in Keningau. On August 25, the Keningau Health Office received the index case with positive RTK-Ag result from Kg Kadalakan Keningau, which was reported from the Temporary Quarantine Centre at Keningau IPG (Teacher Education Institute) through close contact screening. The index case is a 40-year-old male prison officer at a moral guidance detention centre. Close contact tracing conducted from August 27 to September 4 found an increase in positive cases in the district.
The cluster was believed to have spread from the infected family members of the index case to colleagues, prison inmates under the supervision of the officer as well as his family members. The cluster was named Pagar Sebrang because of its location at a juvenile prison, which is fully fenced in Mukim Sebrang. To date, the cluster has recorded 29 positive cases.
On the other hand, Masidi said 2,941 Covid-19 patients have recovered or discharged from hospitals.
Some 4,831 patients were still undergoing treatment, including 1,805 in hospitals, 2,967 in Low-Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC), 51 in temporary detention centres or prisons and eight in private facilities.
“There are 200 patients who require critical care, including 129 in intensive care units (ICU) or repurposed critical care and 71 in open ward, while 83 require ventilators.”
As of September 4, 43.3 per cent of the adult population in Sabah were fully vaccinated and 61.8 per cent have received their first dose of vaccine.