Kepayan Prison sees biggest rise among Malaysia's clusters

Kota Kinabalu: The Kepayan Prison cluster of Covid-19 saw the largest increase among Malaysia’s clusters on Thursday, recording 155 new cases and raising its total to 582, data from the Ministry of Health showed.

It is Sabah’s most active cluster currently as authorities scrambled to know the status of all some 2,000 inmates and almost 600 employees in the state’s largest correctional facility.

Sabah recorded four more Covid-19 deaths, 578 new cases and two more clusters on Thursday, said the Ministry of Health.

ADVERTISEMENT

Two men and two women aged between 60 and 88 died in Sandakan (two deaths), Kota Kinabalu and Tuaran.

Sabah’s new cases comprised 223 in clusters including two new ones, Tinusa and Sauh, 210 close contacts and 145 other screening cases.

The Sauh cluster was found at Petronas' first floating liquefied natural gas facility which spread to Kota Kinabalu, Papar and Miri and saw three new cases and a total of 17 cases, while Tinusa in Sandakan had also three new cases, raising its total to 33.

ADVERTISEMENT

The other clusters that saw new cases were Tuaran’s Tujuh Serangkai (30), Ramai-Ramai in Sandakan (15), Surat in Sandakan (6), Kunak’s Laut (3), Inai in Kudat (3), Basung also in Kudat (2), Kasih in Lahad Datu and Kota Kinabalu (1), Tawau’s Tanamera (1) and Khazanah in Lahad Datu (1). 

A total of 250 more patients were discharged in Sabah which now had 9,868 cases, out of a national total of 23,804.

Meanwhile, Labuan had 29 new cases consisting of 25 cluster cases and four close contacts.