LABUAN (Nov 25): The Labuan Health Department is currently battling three active Covid-19 clusters, with two of them causing more infections and spreading faster, said its director Dr Ismuni Bohari.
He said they were the Merinding 2 Cluster, which involved the Labuan Matriculation College that emerged on Oct 28, and the Bukit Kuda and Jalan Jati clusters which surfaced on Nov 18 and Nov 21 respectively.
“The Merinding 2 cluster emerged after several students from the mainland (Sabah) enrolled for the new semester. Infection spread to students in the hostel and staff but the cluster is manageable,” he told Bernama yesterday.
He said the Bukit Kuda cluster emerged following a family here holding an engagement ceremony with relatives from the mainland entering the island for it.
“This cluster spread widely to those who attended the ceremony…and we are still tracing the close contacts for screening, and efforts are being made to break the chain of infection,” he said.
Dr Ismuni said the Jalan Jati cluster involved a bistro in Jalan Jati downtown with several patrons believed to have caused the infections.
“These two clusters (Bukit Kuda and Jalan Jati) have gone up to the third generation of cases, we are doing analysis on every case,” he said.
Cumulative cases in Labuan stand at 10, 378, with 140 active cases currently. The duty-free island has recorded 150 fatalities to date due to the pandemic. – Bernama