Kota Kinabalu: Sabah’s cases decreased to 4,794 on Thursday while three more education clusters were identified and deaths rose to 14, said Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun.
Despite the slight decrease, Masidi said sporadic infections remain high with some 64.2 per cent of cases being symptomatic, an indicator that cases will remain high in the coming days.
Additionally, he said, Tawau recorded the most deaths with four fatalities, followed by three in Tuaran, two in Kota Kinabalu and one each in Kalabakan, Kudat, Ranau, Keningau and Lahad Datu.
On the three education clusters, Masidi said one was identified in Kota Belud and two were identified in Ranau, which saw some 122 infections cumulatively.
The cluster in Kota Belud, named as the Batu Enam Kota Belud Cluster, involved hostel students at SMK Taun Gusi 2, stemming from a 15-year-old male local student who had symptoms on Feb 9 and tested positive the next day.
“Close contact screenings on her roommates and classmates found 19 more positive,” said Masidi.
The cluster in Ranau, named as the Jalan Sugut Ranau Cluster, stemmed from a 39-year-old female local teacher at SMK Ulu Sugut, who was tested positive on Feb 7. Contact screenings found 49 more positive.
The other cluster in Ranau, named as the Kemburongoh 2 cluster, stemmed from a 52-year-old male security personnel at SMK Kemburongoh, who was tested positive on Feb 7.
“Contact screenings found another 54 positive as of Feb 17,” said Masidi.
He added that Sabah has recorded 41 clusters to date, while the Jalan Kepayan Tambunan Cluster involving SMK Tambunan officially ended on Thursday. It was the first education cluster identified in the State.
On the caseload, Masidi said 13 districts recorded three-digit cases, namely Kota Kinabalu (904), Penampang (513), Sandakan (459), Tuaran (444), Papar (347), Tawau (273), Lahad Datu (242), Beaufort (203), Ranau (195), Kota Belud (156), Kota Marudu (149), Keningau (136) and Putatan (128).
“On Thursday, Tongod became a district with zero cases,” he added.
Masidi said a majority of cases are mild, with 4,773 out of 4,794 being category one and two infections, which is 99.56 per cent. 11 cases are in category three, nine in category four and one in category five.
Some 1,708 Covid-19 patients have been discharged from the hospital while 2,889 patients are currently receiving treatment at hospitals, low risk quarantine and treatment centres (PKRCs), prisons/temporary detention centres and private facilities.
On Sabah’s immunisation programme, Masidi said 11,331 individuals were vaccinated on Feb 16, of which 9,181 were adults while 68 were teenagers and 2,082 were children.
As of Feb 16, he said a total of 2,412,106 individuals have completed both doses, of which 77.25 per cent were adults, 2,471,979 have gotten their first dose, of which 77.97 per cent were adults.
Masidi added that a total of 338,107 teenagers have received their first dose, while 313,418 have completed both doses, which is 73.54 per cent of the teenage population. A total of 15,703 children have received their first dose.
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