PUTRAJAYA: Sabah continues to record the highest number of Covid-19 positive cases at 702, or 80.6 per cent of the total cases reported today.
Malaysia registered a total of 871 Covid-19 cases as of noon today.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said as of Oct 18, the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in Sabah stood at 7,439 cases (or 36.3 percent of the total cases in Malaysia).
The surge in Sabah's Covid-19 cases today, he said, was due to active screening and increased number of samples sent to the Institute for Medical Research.
He said since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia, the government has screened 251,030 individuals in Sabah.
"This follows the active detection of cases conducted by the public health sector as one of the measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 infection in Sabah.
"To date, Sabah has a Covid-19 positive rate of 2.96 percent," he said at a press conference here today.
Meanwhile, on the 871 cases reported today, Dr Noor Hisham said 97 cases (11.1 percent) were from the Tembok Cluster, Reman Prison Cluster, Seberang Perai Prison Cluster and Kepayan Prison Cluster.
"These cases are isolated in prisons and do not infect the community. Meanwhile, areas in the Klang Valley accounted for 9.6 per cent of the total number of cases."
On active clusters in Malaysia with significant new cases, he said 49 of the total cases reported today were linked to the Kepayan cluster in Sabah, followed by 25 cases in Tuaran linked to the Tujuh Serangkai cluster (bringing its total to 149), and 22 cases in Penang related to the Reman Prison cluster (raising its total to 399).
"The Seberang Perai Prison cluster recorded 18 new cases (72 cumulative cases), Ramai-Ramai cluster in Sandakan registered 17 new cases (182), and Tanamera cluster in Tawau had 13 new cases (44)."
Sharing details of the seven Covid-19 related fatalities, he said, six were reported in Sabah and one in Selangor.
"Case 13,525 was a Sabahan male, 61 (Queen Elizabeth Hospital); Case 12,984 is a 70-year-old woman from Sabah who suffered from high blood pressure (Tawau Hospital); Case 13,706 was a Sabahan man, 57, also with a history of high blood pressure (Queen Elizabeth Hospital).
"Case 20,328 was Sabahan woman, 55, also with high blood pressure (Duchess of Kent Hospital), while Case 20,329 was a man from Sabah, 41 (Tawau Hospital) and Case 17,779 was a Sabahan man, 44, who had a history of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and dislipidemia.
"Case 20,401 was a woman from Selangor, aged 46."