A nurse prepares to conduct a Covid-19 swab test. — Bernama photo
KOTA KINBALU: A total of 1938 infections or 74.7% of the total 2594 new Covid-19 cases in Sabah on Aug 31 are from Category 2, which is involving mild symptoms.
Meanwhile, 564 (21.7%) patients in Category 1, 15 people in Category 3, four in Category 4 and 12 in Category 5.
Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said 61 more patients are still under investigation.
“Although close contact screening of 60.6% is still the main contributor to new cases, the number obtained from symptomatic screening also rose to 30.3% (787) from 29.4% (680) on the previous day.
“Cases in this category are considered sporadic cases, where the carrier or source of the virus is difficult to be identified. This is a sign that the virus is already in our community.
“These sporadic cases are often associated with failure or negligence to comply with SOPs as well as imperfect personal health care practices. The percentage of cases from this category is quite high in some districts if we take today’s statistics as an indication; Tawau 44.6%, Penampang 41.4%, Putatan 38.5% and Kota Kinabalu 31.9%,” he said.
Masidi also revealed two new clusters — Kluster Sawit Jeroco in Lahad Datu and Kluster Nasakot in Ranau.
He also said that the number of cases in Papar rose sharply to 264 from only 49 cases on Aug 30, Sandakan added 68 cases, Putatan rose 37 cases, while Penampang and Kota Kinabalu added 31 cases each.
Tuaran district, however, dropped 103 cases, Kota Belud -22, and Kinabatangan -24.
On the vaccination progress, Sabah is currently approaching 40% of the adult population who have completed a vaccine dose.
“As of 3 pm of Aug 31, a total of 39.0% of the adult population in Sabah have obtained a complete dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 58.4% have taken a single dose,” he added.