KOTA KINABALU: Sabah recorded 87 Covid-19 fatalities on Wednesday, including 24 in Sandakan.
Tawau reported 14 deaths, followed by eight in Tuaran, six in Kota Kinabalu, five in Lahad Datu and Keningau, four in Kota Marudu, three in Ranau and Kota Belud.
Beaufort, Kinabatangan, Penampang, Beluran, Semporna and Papar each registered two deaths while Nabawan, Kalabakan and Tongod each recorded one death.
Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun reiterated that the fatalities might not occur in the past 24 hours as some cases required time to verify and thus were reported later than the actual date of death.
Meanwhile, he said new Covid-19 infections in Sabah continued to decline to 1,199 on Wednesday, the lowest since August 6.
Kota Kinabalu registered 150 cases, followed by Sandakan (102), Lahad Datu (100), Pitas (70) and Keningau (66). There were six cases involving detainees and seven cases of offshore oil rig workers in the state capital.
Overall, he said 15 districts reported a drop in Covid-19 infections, 11 districts saw an increase, Beaufort district maintained Tuesday’s figures, while Kuala Penyu recorded zero new case.
Masidi, who is Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson, added districts that recorded notable increase in cases were Pitas (+30), Telupid (+20), Tongod (+19) and Kinabatangan (+12), whereas Penampang (-35), Keningau (-29), Kota Belud (-29), Ranau (-28), Kota Marudu (-26) and Kudat (-14) showed obvious reduction in infections.
There were 10 cases involving detainees on Wednesday.
He said close contact screenings remained the highest contributor to the tally with 720 cases (60.1 per cent), followed by 367 cases (30.6 per cent) from symptomatic screenings and 112 cases (9.3 per cent) from other screenings.
He added that 209 cases (17.43 per cent) were patients under Category 1, 951 cases (79.32 per cent) under Category 2, nine cases under Category 3, eight cases in Category 4 and four cases in Category 5, whereas 18 cases were still being investigated.
Of the 1,199 daily cases, 479 cases (39.95 per cent) were registered after two to three days, 67 cases (5.59 per cent) were reported after four to five days and 12 cases (1 per cent) were backlogs more than five days after the results were known.
On the other hand, Masidi said 1,478 Covid-19 patients have recovered, whereas 3,820 were still undergoing treatment.
Meanwhile, Kampung Rompon in Tambunan will be placed under Enhanced Movement Control Order from Sept 24 until Oct 7.
The EMCO at Kampung Lohan Ulu in Ranau, Kampung Pengalat Kecil in Papar, Kampung Ulu and Kampung Pasir Putih in Putatan will end on September 23.