Another Sabah boarding school cluster detected
Published on: Saturday, November 20, 2021
By: Anthea Peter
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Kota Kinabalu: Another school hostel cluster has been identified in Tenom, named as the Mantailang Atas Cluster, which is sparking concern over whether it would become an infection trend.Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the index case is a 19-year-old student who lives at the SMK Tenom hostel and was tested positive on Nov 13 after experiencing symptoms since Nov 11.
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“Close contact screenings found 15 positive among his classmates, hostel mates as well as family members, bringing the tally in this cluster to 16,” he said in a statement, Friday.
Earlier on Thursday, a school hostel cluster was identified in Ranau, dubbed as the Kemburongoh Cluster, sparked by a 17-year-old student from SMK Kemurongoh, Ranau who lives at the school’s hostel.
The cluster as of Thursday saw some 22 infections among the index patient’s classmates, roommates and the hostel warden as well as family members of the hostel warden.
Sabah recorded 543 cases on Friday while deaths shot up to 15 --- two each in Beaufort, Kota Kinabalu and Tuaran and one each in Keningau, Kota Belud, Kota Marudu, Kuala Penyu, Kudat, Penampang, Sandakan, Semporna and Tawau.
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Masidi said Kota Kinabalu topped the list with 120 cases, followed by Ranau (51), Tuaran (51), Kota Belud (47), Penampang (40), Papar (28), Kota Marudu (23), Keningau (19), Tenom (19) and Beaufort (18).
He said only Penampang recorded a significant decrease (-20), while the downward trend in other districts were marginal.
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Of the caseload, Masidi said 303 were close contacts (55.80 per cent) while 204 were symptomatic cases (37.57 per cent).
“Based on Malaysia’s daily figures on Nov 18, the country’s infectivity rate (R naught) was 1.02 and 0.97 for Sabah,” he added.
Masidi said serious Covid-19 infections remain low with only one case in category five and five cases in category four. There are no category three infections.
“For mild cases, 466 cases or 86 per cent are in category two while 65 cases or 12 per cent are in category one. Six patients are still being evaluated by the State Health Department,” he said.
Some 476 Covid-19 patients have been discharged from the hospital while 1,712 patients are currently receiving treatment at hospitals, low risk quarantine and treatment centres (PKRCs), prisons/temporary detention centres and private facilities.
Masidi said 74 patients are under critical care, including 71 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)/repurposed critical care as well three in the open ward (high dependency ward (HDW)/acute cubicle), with 23 patients needing ventilator support.
“Some 76 stage four and five patients (37.44 per cent) have not completed their vaccinations,” he said, adding that Sabah’s bed capacity is at 5,537 units with an occupancy rate of 30.92 per cent.
On Sabah’s immunisation programme, Masidi said 5,306 individuals were vaccinated on Nov 18, of which 4,553 were adults and 753 were teenagers.
“As of Nov 18, some 2,436,370 individuals have completed their first dose, of which 76.26 per cent were adults. Some 2,381,159 individuals have completed both doses of the vaccine, of which 75.33 per cent were adults,” he said.
He added that 332,718 teenagers have received their first dose, whereas 303,393 teenagers have been fully vaccinated thus far.
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