KOTA KINABALU, Jan 26 — Seven COVID-19 infection clusters involving educational institutions in Sabah have been detected since last week until today.
State Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun said this was based on the contact screening conducted by the Sabah Health Department among the hostelites of six schools.
“The Jalan Teritipan in Kota Marudu is an educational institution cluster with 44 positive cases recorded today while the Jalan Binunuk Cluster in Beaufort and Papar are workplace clusters with 14 positive cases, and the Montenior Cluster in Beaufort and Kuala Penyu are also workplace clusters with 43 cases.
“The index case in the Jalan Teritipan Cluster is a Form Four student of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Tandek 2 in Kota Marudu who was confirmed positive last Sunday (Jan 23). All the students with mild symptoms have been quarantined to receive treatment.
“This new cluster is among the main contributors of new daily cases in Sabah with Kota Marudu district recording the highest number of new cases at 64 today,” said Masidi, who is also the Sabah COVID-19 spokesman, in a statement today.
Last week, Sabah recorded five COVID-19 clusters involving the spread of infection at educational institutions, namely, in Putatan (Pandan-Pandan Cluster), Sandakan (Jalan Pertukangan), Ranau ( Puri Ranau) and (Kologon Bypass) and Tambunan (Jalan Kepayan Lama).
Yesterday, the sixth cluster (Jalan Balung, Tawau) was recorded, with 18 cases comprising hostelites of SMK Balung di Tawau and Jalan Teritipan Cluster was the seventh cluster among the educational institutions and was detected since last week.
On the Jalan Binunuk Cluster, Masidi said it was detected after the index case, a 34-year-old female staff of RISDA, was confirmed positive on Jan 22, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 14 so far.
“The close contact screening conducted on the colleagues and family members of the index case found that 13 have been infected, believed to occur from a meeting involving many people at a facility,” he said.
On the Montenior Cluster, Masidi said the index case, a 37-year-old female health worker from Kuala Penyu, was confirmed positive on Jan12 and 43 positive cases had been detected so far.
“Screening of the close contacts found 24 are from the first generation, 17 from the second generation and two (third generation) have also contracted the virus. They comprise colleagues and family members of the index case. All of them have been quarantined for treatment,” he said.
A total of 335 new cases were recorded today, with 330 of these in categories one and two, three in category three and one each in categories four and five.
