Wedding Ceremony Sparks New Covid 19 Cluster In Sabah

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- NSTP file picKOTA KINABALU: A wedding ceremony sparked a new Covid-19 cluster in Kg Lima, Nabawan, with 61 positive cases detected so far.
Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the index case was a 22-year-old man, who tested positive for Covid-19 on Aug 20.
"He had experienced symptoms of fever, cough, and joint pain since Aug 18. Based on investigation, the index case was likely to have contracted the infection from the community.
"A total of 134 contacts have been screened where 61 were found positive. 53 tested negative in the first swab, while 21 are still awaiting results," he said in a statement.
Another cluster involving an oil palm plantation was identified in Kinabatangan, named the Pin Supu cluster.
"The index case is a female Indonesian worker, 40, who tested positive for Covid-19 at the Kinabatangan Hospital on Aug 22 after developing symptoms since Aug 14.
"To date, 129 contacts were screened where 34 were found positive among social contacts, employees and dependents. Contact tracing is still ongoing," he said.
Today, Sabah recorded 2,834 new Covid-19 cases, including 1,783 backlogged cases.
Most cases came from close contact screenings with 1,751 or 61.79 per cent of the caseload. This is followed by 778 cases from symptomatic screenings, 243 cases from other categories, 51 cases from clusters and 11 cases from targeted screenings.
He added that 2,544 of the new cases involved citizens while the remaining 290 involved immigrants.
The state also registered 17 fatalities – seven in Kota Kinabalu, five in Tawau, two in Keningau and one each in Kunak, Semporna and Penampang.
Masidi added a total of 1,414,020 doses of the Pfizer, Sinovac and CanSino vaccines have been delivered to Sabah so far to handle the dip in Sabah's vaccination rate.
"To date, 36.47 per cent of the targeted adult population in Sabah have been fully inoculated, taking into account that only one dose is required for the Cansino vaccine.
"56.68 per cent have received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine while 36.39 per cent have completed two doses," he said adding that the total population of those eligible to be vaccinated in the state was 2,758,400 people.
The Sabah government has been focused on vaccinating its residents as soon as possible, and also restricting most movement to only those who were fully vaccinated to curb the worsening Covid-19 situation in the state. - NST

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