Sabah goes all red, after Nabawan falls to higher cases

 

All districts in Sabah are red zones, with active cases beyond the threshold of 40 cases. (Sabah health department pic)

KOTA KINABALU: The whole of Sabah is now a red zone after Nabawan district, the last in the orange zone, recorded an increase of eight new cases today.

Local Government and Housing Minister Masidi Manjun said all 27 districts were now in the same zone for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began more than a year ago.

Tawau had been the first district to be declared a red zone in March last year, followed by Kota Kinabalu in April last year, before being followed by other districts.

Masidi, who is the state spokesperson for Covid-19 matters, said the number of daily cases for Sabah remained high despite a slight decrease in several districts including Kota Kinabalu and Tuaran.

He said Kota Kinabalu still recorded the highest number of new cases at 310 cases followed by Tawau (206), Penampang (127), Tuaran (91), Sipitang (70), Putatan (55), Sandakan (52), Beaufort (49), Kota Belud (48), Keningau (46), Papar (45) and Telupid (36).

“Tongod is the only district that has not recorded any new cases.

“In Kota Kinabalu, although close contact screening accounts for 61% of cases in the district, the percentage of cases through symptomatic (sporadic) screening is also high, at 32%.

“The percentage in the symptomatic screening category is also high in Tuaran at 32% and in Penampang at 25% while in Tawau, the close contact category contributed 142 or 69% of the new total in the district, today,” he said.

He said, overall, 62% of the new cases today, were from close contacts other than the symptomatic category (24%) and the existing cluster (7%).

Masidi said 842 of the 1,247 new Covid-19 cases in Sabah today were in categories one and two, 11 cases in category three, five cases in category four, and two cases in category five. - FMT