KOTA KINABALU: The significant increase of Covid-19 cases in Sabah today has been attributed to existing and new clusters.
The East-Malaysian state saw 245 daily cases being recorded today compared to 160 cases registered yesterday.
State Covid-19 spokesperson Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the D' Kuala cluster which involved a second screening of students from Sekolah Menengah Agama Kuala Papar detected 62 more positive cases.
"Also adding to the statistics in Sabah are 28 cases from Lorong Karamunsing Kota Kinabalu cluster, 11 from Jalan Tun Fuad cluster and 37 from Jalan Kretam Silimpopon cluster in Kalabakan," he said in a statement.
There are four new clusters in the state including Jalan Pengalat Lok Kawi in Papar involving factory workers in the district.
The index case is a 32-year-old man who showed symptoms since May 10 and tested positive eight days later. After that, screening on 69 workers found 15 of them being infected.
The second cluster is Lorong Karamunsing here which has seen 28 people being infected. The premises' laptop repairman, who is the index case, was admitted to the low-risk treatment centre.
The infection also spread from an electronic shop to worker's family's members in Putatan, Penampang and Tuaran.
Another workplace cluster in the state capital is the Jalan Tun Fuad cluster, in which the index case is a 43-year-old construction worker who was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth hospital here.
The cluster also found 10 more positive cases from here, Penampang and Putatan.
In Kalabakan, the Jalan Kretam Silimpopon cluster was detected on May 14 after an oil palm factory worker, 33, tested positive. Screening on 142 close contacts found 41 of them are positive.
"Based on initial investigation, the index case is believed to have been infected when attending a mother's day gathering at the Silimpopon church which is next to the plantation at Jalan Kretam, Silimpopon."