528 new cases, eight more deaths in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s cumulative cases passed the fivedigit mark yesterday after the state detected 528 new Covid-19 cases, along with a whopping eight fatalities and another new cluster.

State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjung said that the total number of cases now stands at 10,386.

Kota Kinabalu recorded the highest number of cases yesterday with 228 new cases, followed by Tawau (61), Semporna (50) and Sandakan (31).

“One hundred forty (140) of the new cases in Kota Kinabalu were from the Kepayan Prison Cluster,” said Masidi, who is also the state’s official Covid-19 spokesperson, in a press conference yesterday.

Five of the Covid-19 deaths were recorded in Sandakan while the other three were detected in Kota Kinabalu, Tuaran and Putatan.

The new cluster, dubbed as the Samudera Cluster, was identified at the Taman Perumahan Samudera, Sandakan. A total of eight cases had been detected in the cluster so far.

Masidi explained that the high number of cases in Tawau and Semporna was due to the backlog of samples.

He added that two teachers, 28 students and one State Education Department personnel were infected by Covid-19 yesterday.

Meanwhile, the total number of new Covid-19 cases reported nationwide in the past 24 hours dropped slightly to 710, while 10 deaths were recorded, which is the highest since the pandemic began in the country, said Health directorgeneral Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the latest development took the cumulative tally for positive cases to 24,514 while the death toll rose to 214.

He also said the total number of active cases with infectivity potential now stood at 8,416.

Among the 10 new deaths, one each was reported in Kedah and Labuan.

“Deaths number 206, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212 and 213 involved Malaysians while fatalities number 205, 208 and 214 involved foreigners,” Dr Noor Hisham said, adding that there were 467 recoveries yesterday, taking the cumulative number of full recoveries to 15,884 cases.

He said that of the total, Sabah recorded the highest number of recoveries, with 246 cases, followed by Selangor (105 cases) and Kedah (74). There are 90 cases currently being treated in the intensive care unit, with 28 requiring ventilator assistance.