Navy cluster pushes up Covid-19 cases in Sabah

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KOTA KINABALU (Nov 22): Sabah recorded 485 new Covid-19 cases on Monday (Nov 22), with Kota Kinabalu topping the list with 161 infections.

Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun said the reason for the sharp increase of 63 cases from the day before was a new cluster, namely Lautan Biru Pantai Cluster, involving the Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM) crew.

The cluster, which has cases recorded in Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau, has registered 93 infections to date.

Masidi said the infections had spread during operations.

“According to statistics, only three out of the 161 cases were registered in Kota Kinabalu in the last 24 hours, while the remaining were reported two days or more after the screening results were known.”

He said several districts saw an obvious increase in cases, including Tuaran (62) and Kota Marudu (27), but districts such as Penampang (26), Papar (18) and Tenom (11) reported far fewer cases on Monday.

Masidi, who is Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson, said cases from Lautan Biru Pantai Cluster (91) and Kemburongoh (1) contributed nearly 19 per cent to the daily cases in Sabah.

He said the percentage of cases from close contact screenings (39 per cent) and symptomatic screenings (36 per cent) were almost as high.

“This is a clear sign that Covid-19 is widespread among the community and the risk of sporadic infection is increasingly higher.”

On another note, he said 469 patients (97 per cent) fell under Category 1 and 2, five in Category 3, two in Category 4 and three in Category 5. Six cases were still under assessment by the State Health Department.