COVID-19: Teacher, pregnant woman index cases of new clusters in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah state health department has detected two new COVID-19 clusters, Kebagu cluster here and Papar as well as Tanjong Kapor cluster in Semporna involving a teacher and a pregnant woman as index cases, Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said.

He added that the index case for the Kebagu cluster was a 53-year-old female teacher at Sekolah Kebangsaan Kebagu who was confirmed positive after undergoing symptomatic screening at a private clinic on May 3. Contact screening was conducted on 281 people with 15 positive cases.

Masidi said the Tanjong Kapor cluster involved eight cases with the index case being a 31-year-old pregnant woman who was detected on May 9 at Semporna Hospital, adding that close contact screening turned up seven positive results among the members of the woman's household.

Meanwhile, he said the state health department recorded 70 new COVID-19 positive cases in the state today, bringing the state's total to 59,073 cases.

"Three deaths were reported in Papar, Kinabatangan and Tawau districts. 56 people recovered today, for a total of 57,917 people so far.

"A total of 576 patients are still being treated, 239 of them in hospitals and 337 of them at public quarantine and low-risk treatment centres," he added.

Masidi said 56,281 people received their first vaccine shots under phase one while 50,552 people received their second dose, and for phase two, 30,981 people have gotten their first shot.

"The number registrations for vaccine recipients today are 2,045, bringing the total number of registrations to 485,946 people so far," he said.

-- BERNAMA