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Sabah's Covid-19 cases rise to 1,255 with 13 deaths

KOTA KINABALU: Nabawan is the last district left in Sabah which has yet to 'see red' in the latest wave of Covid-19 in Sabah.

Sabah Covid-19 spokesperson Datuk Masidi Manjun said Sabah was now down to its last orange zone, Nabawan, after Tambunan became a red zone today. All other districts are red zones.

"All 27 districts in the state recorded new cases. Kota Kinabalu continued to be on top with 241 daily cases, a slight drop compared to 282 cases yesterday, followed by Tawau 135.

"Tuaran's new cases soared to 143, an increase of 47 cases. Thirty-nine of the new cases were detected through targeted screening in Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) localities as well as 79 cases of close contacts.

"New cases in Beluran also rose sharply to 123, where 109 were tested positive through targeted screening. Yesterday, Beluran only recorded six cases.

"The number of new cases in Sandakan also increased to 108 today from 72 cases yesterday," he said in his statement.

Sabah's Covid-19 cases continued an upward trend, hitting 1,255 infections with 13 fatalities.

The 13 fatalities were recorded in Kota Kinabalu (six), Tawau (three), Sandakan (two) and one each in Semporan and Sipitang.

According to Masidi, close contacts remained the largest contributor to the daily cases, at 618 cases or 49.24 per cent, followed by symptomatic category or sporadic infections with 247 cases (19.68 per cent). There were 131 cases (10.43 per cent) from clusters.

New cases recorded from targeted screenings at EMCO localities contributed almost 15 per cent (187) of the total cases.

Masidi said two new clusters were recorded, one in Nabawan (Sarikan cluster) and another in Sandakan (Lebuh Empat cluster).

"The Sarikan cluster is a community type cluster. The index case was a 34-year-old man, who was confirmed positive for Covid-19 on Aug 3 after suffering from symptoms of fever, sore throat, flu, cough, loss of sense of taste and smell since July 27.

"Of the 48 contacts screened, 14 individuals tested positive, and they were referred to hospital for further treatment and isolation. Another 34 individuals are still waiting for the results of the first screening," he said.

For the Lebuh Empat cluster, it involved Sandakan police personnel and detainees at the Sandakan police headquarters lockup.

"The index case was a male, 63, who was confirmed positive after undergoing detainee screening on Aug 5.

"Contact screening was performed by taking 122 samples. Of the total, 50 samples were detected positive. Meanwhile, the remaining 71 samples were negative," he said.

Masidi said that 79.28 per cent of patients today are in Category One (no symptoms) with 315 cases. There were 680 patients in Category Two who only had mild symptoms.

"Both categories One and Two do not need hospital treatment, and the patients were placed in Covid-19 Quarantine and Low-risk Treatment Centres (PKRCs).

"Ten cases are in Category Three, four cases in Category Four and no cases recorded for Category Five," he said, adding another 246 cases were still under investigation to determine their category.

Masidi said the vaccination programme in the state was running smoothly.

"Yesterday, the Sabah Health Department administered 48,195 doses of vaccines to eligible people.

"We hope that we will continue to receive a large and uninterrupted supply of vaccines to enable the Sabah Health Department to enhance and accelerate the vaccination drive in Sabah," he said.

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