Rumah Merah cluster among causes of spike in COVID-19 cases in Sabah today
KOTA KINABALU,. The Rumah Merah Cluster at the Manggatal Temporary Detention Centre (PTS) is one of the reasons why the number of new positive COVID-19 cases in Sabah almost doubled today to 532 cases compared to 274 cases yesterday, says Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.
Masidi, who is the state government’s spokesman on COVID-19-related matters said the Rumah Merah Cluster recorded 150 cases following large-scale screening conducted in the area yesterday.
“The positive cases reported at PTS Manggatal on Dec 10 is due to continuous monitoring conducted on detainees there. Several of them had begun to show symptoms and were found positive for COVID-19 after taking the test.
“An investigation carried out found that they are not new infections. They (patients) were found to be negative through the first screening because at that time, they were likely to be in the early stages of infection and the viral load in the body was low.
“So far, a total of 1,702 detainees have been screened using the rt-PCR method,” he said during his daily press conference here today.
Masidi said screenings at the Dbajaru Cluster in Lahad Datu which recorded 133 cases also contributed to the spike.
In a related development, Masidi said cumulatively, 28,923 of 32,066 positive cases recorded in the state to date had recovered so far.
He said a total of 1,805 patients were still receiving treatment, namely 629 at hospitals and 1,176 at COVID-19 Low Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC), with 63 warded in the Intensive Care Unit and 20 requiring ventilator support.
On the standard operating procedure (SOP) at eateries, Masidi said the state government maintained the SOP enforced prior to this, which is limiting patrons based on the table size, besides having to adhere to physical distancing measures.
Masidi added that the state government had so far distributed 293,718 food aid baskets to the target group in all 27 districts.
— BERNAMA
