Family Day event led to new cluster in Sabah, says Masidi

 

A new cluster of 21 cases was recorded after a person from Beaufort attended a family day event in Tuaran.

KOTA KINABALU: A family day event in Tuaran caused a new cluster of 21 Covid-19 cases, state minister Masidi Majun said today.

The Taman Ikan Jinak cluster is one of the two new clusters recorded in the state.

He said 18 cases were recorded in the cluster today, for a cumulative total of 21 cases.

The index case was the father-in-law of a man from Beaufort who attended the family day activities at the Jinak Fish Park, Tuaran, on Jan 2-3, he said.

The Taman Ikan Jinak cluster is one of two new clusters, the other being the Jalan Mawila cluster which recorded a total of 15 cases.

He said the cluster index case was detected through a cross-state screening on Jan 13 involving a civil servant.

“Efforts to track close contacts for the two clusters are also underway,” he said.

Masidi said 393 new cases were recorded in Sabah today, of which 222 cases or 56.5% were from close contact screening.

In addition, a total of 74 cases were from symptomatic screening, 36 cases from screening of existing clusters, 21 cases from screening at Socso farms, eight cases from screening residential school students and 32 cases from other categories, he said.

He said 337 patients had recovered and were allowed to return today bringing the cumulative total to 39,326.

He said a total of 2,949 patients are still receiving treatment, of which 766 are being treated at the hospital while 2,185 are being treated at Covid-19 low-risk centres.

“The number of Covid-19 patients in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) is 84 people and 21 of them require respiratory assistance,” he said. - FMT