KOTA KINABALU – A 26-year-old housewife was found to have triggered a new Covid-19 cluster in Sabah yesterday, namely the Tanjung Pitas cluster, involving a fishing community in the Mapan-Mapan mukim in the Pitas district.
Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the cluster recorded 43 cumulative cases and was detected after the index case, who is from Kg Naruntung, tested positive for Covid-19 on June 27.
“Based on the investigation, there are two possibilities of transmission, either the movements of the village residents to Pulau Banggi, Kudat throughout May and June, or the movements of Kg Naruntung fishmongers who sold fish in the Pitas and Kota Marudu areas,” he said in a statement last night.
Masidi, who is also Sabah Covid-19 spokesman, said that following the case, the Pitas district health office detected a further 20 positive cases through close contact screening.
He said the number included three positive cases from the Pitas Maternal and Child Health Clinic laboratory following the contact screening of a household on June 28, one of them being the index case’s husband who worked as a fisherman and sold fish in Kg Taritipan Kota Marudu.
He said they also detected a case through community screening in Kg Naruntung on June 29 and 16 positive cases among the villagers on June 30.
Meanwhile, Sabah recorded 230 new cases yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 69,907 while five fatalities were reported – two in Lahad Datu and one each in Kunak, Sandakan, and Kudat. – Bernama, July 3, 2021
