Kepayan Prison is now Sabah's biggest cluster

Kota Kinabalu: The Kepayan Prison cluster of Covid-19 has overtaken Benteng LD as Sabah’s biggest cluster when it recorded 434 new cases on Saturday, data from the Ministry of Health showed.

Kepayan Prison, which had the most new cases among Malaysia’s clusters on Saturday, now had 1,156 cumulative cases, more than Benteng LD’s 1,089.

While cases in the Kepayan Prison cluster are so far confined to the prison and its staff quarters in Kota Kinabalu, Benteng LD’s cases are spread over four east-coast districts and one district in the west coast.

ADVERTISEMENT

Data showed 2,160 individuals had been tested in the Kepayan Prison cluster, meaning almost 1,000 test results are pending and not all among the over 1,800 inmates and almost 600 Prisons employees have been tested.

The spike in the Kepayan Prison cluster caused Kota Kinabalu to register a whopping 557 latest cases, the capital district’s highest daily cases yet, which in turn pushed Sabah’s latest cases up to 889, also a daily record for the state.

Meanwhile, five officers at the Papar Temporary Detention Centre for illegal immigrants were found positive for the virus, said the Sabah government’s spokesman for the crisis, Datuk Masidi Manjun.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Following that, a total of 33 detainees were screened today and their test results are pending,” said Masidi in his daily press briefing today.

Sabah also saw two new clusters in Sandakan called Mesra with 22 total cases and Megah with 15.

Existing clusters that saw new cases were Inai in Kudat (33 new cases), Highway in Kota Belud (7), Sandakan’s Ramai-Ramai (3), Kasih in Lahad Datu and Kota Kinabalu (3), Tempayan in Kota Kinabalu and Penampang (2) and Tawau’s Tanamera (1).