KOTA KINABALU: New Covid-19 infections in Sabah decreased slightly to 1,649 cases on Monday.
Thirty-nine Covid-19 fatalities were reported, including six each in Sandakan and Tawau, five each in Kota Belud and Tuaran, four in Kota Kinabalu, two each in Lahad Datu and Papar and one each in Sipitang, Kudat, Kinabatangan, Kunak, Pitas, Keningau, Penampang, Kalabakan and Beluran.
Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun said the fatalities might not occur in the last 24 hours.
“Some fatalities took time to verify and were reported later than the actual date of death.”
A new cluster was reported in Kinabatangan, namely Ladang Desa Jerocco 2 Cluster.
He said Kota Kinabalu registered an increase of 122 cases to 314, while infections in Penampang rose by 97 to 165.
Cases in Keningau also increased by 33 to 96, Kinabatangan went up 22 to 68 and Tambunan rose by 25 to 47.
Meanwhile, he said infections in Sandakan had decreased by 117 to 138, Tawau declined by 31 to 68, Papar went down 47 to 56 and Kota Marudu dropped by 57 to 43.
Masidi, who is Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson, said 44 detainees had reportedly infected Covid-19 on Monday, including 18 from Henry Gurney School and 18 from Kepayan Prison.
He said close contact screenings remained the highest contributor of Covid-19 cases in Sabah with 932 infections (56.5 per cent), followed by 481 cases (29.2 per cent) from symptomatic screenings, 74 cases from clusters and 162 from other screenings.
He said that 508 or 30.8 per cent of the new patients fell under Category 1, 1,061 (64.3 per cent) under Category 2, eight under Category 3, 12 under Category 4 and eight under Category 5, whereas 52 patients were still being investigated.
He added that 87.9 per cent of the daily cases are Malaysians.
Of the 1,649 daily cases, he said 635 (38.5 per cent) were cases registered between two to three days, 142 (8.6 per cent) recorded between four to five days and 122 (7.4 per cent) were backlogs registered more than five days after the results were known.
On the new cluster, Masidi said the Ladang Desa Jerocco 2 Cluster was a workplace cluster that took place at an oil palm plantation in Kinabatangan. The index case is the plantation supervisor, a 39-year-old Indonesian, who tested positive at the plantation’s panel clinic after experiencing Covid-19 symptoms on September 1. Contact screenings found another 54 positive cases among social contacts, co-workers and their dependents. To date, the cluster has recorded 55 new positive cases.
On the other hand, Masidi said 2,085 Covid-19 patients have recovered, whereas 4,613 were still undergoing treatment, including 1,565 in hospitals, 2,976 in Low-Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC), 62 in temporary detention centres or prisons and 10 in private facilities.
He added that 210 patients required critical care, including 126 in intensive care unit (ICU) or repurposed critical care and 84 in open ward, while 71 required ventilators.
As of September 12, 52.5 per cent of the adult population in Sabah have completed their vaccination and 67.9 per cent have taken their first dose of vaccine.