- NSTP file pic
- NSTP file pic

KOTA KINABALU: A new Covid-19 cluster has been detected at a madrasah in Putatan with a teacher as the index case.

Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the 53-year-old teacher was suffering from cough, fever, and cold symptoms before testing positive on Jan 17.

To date, the Pandan Pandan cluster has recorded 16 positive cases.

"The teacher teaches at Madrasah Darul Hadis, Kg Pandan Pandan, Putatan. Screening of close contacts among the index case's family, madrasah staff, and students, found 15 more people had been infected," he said.

This was the fourth education cluster detected in recent weeks in Sabah, with the first three discovered at SMK Sandakan in Sandakan, SMK Ranau in Ranau, and SMK Tambunan in Tambunan.

The first three education clusters involved hostel students.

Today, Sabah also recorded an increased daily caseload at 256 new cases, 14 more than yesterday.

Masidi said new cases from four clusters in Sabah had increased the daily number.

"The reason for the increase in new cases in recent days is largely due to the emergence of new clusters in some districts. Some 86 new cases are from the new clusters.

"Apart from Pandan Pandan Putatan Cluster (15 cases), Jalan Pertukangan Sandakan cluster (nine cases), Puri Ranau cluster (nine cases) and Sungai Trayon Kinabatangan cluster (54 cases) are the major contributors of daily cases in the state," he said.

Masidi also noted that the number of positive children below 12 was also quite high at 38, or 15 percent of today's cases.

He added that some 29 or 11.3 percent of the new patients registered today were unvaccinated.

"These two statistics are a reflection that there are still people in society who are careless in exposing their young children to the risk of Covid-19 infection when they are not yet eligible for vaccination; and there are still many people who should be eligible for the vaccine who have not or have refused to be vaccinated," he said.

Despite the increase in the daily caseload, Masidi said most patients were in Categories 1 and 2.

Only one patient was registered in Category 5, and three in Category 3.