Official says all Sabah schools may close for two weeks after teacher dies from Covid-19

KOTA KINABALU: All schools in Sabah will be closed for two weeks following the death of a teacher yesterday due to Covid-19, and half of the state government’s workers have been ordered to work from home.

A high-ranking Education Ministry official said the drastic action to shut schools came about due to a new surge of the coronavirus in Sabah in the last few weeks.

The official told The Star that the ministry was also monitoring two schools in Terengganu.

Sabah Education Department (JPN) director Mistrine Radin, speaking about the teacher’s death, said details were confidential. A check with the Semporna Hospital in Sabah confirmed that a teacher had died there.

She said all 50 schools in the district had been closed due to the enhanced movement control order (MCO) taking effect until Oct 12.

Semporna is among the four red zone districts under enhanced MCO at present.

There are a total of 388 Covid-19 cases in Semporna as of Oct 1.

The other red zones are Tawau with 781 cases, Lahad Datu (304) and Kunak 149 cases.

Meanwhile, State Secretary Datuk Safar Untong said the instructions for 50 per cent of the workforce for any team, department or agency to work from home was issued on Sept 25.

This instruction would be in force for 14 days starting on Oct 5, he said.

“All department chiefs and heads must restructure their workforce to ensure a smooth transition of work, and to arrange timetables with priorities given to essential services,” he said in a statement yesterday.