KOTA KINABALU - The number of Covid-19 cases in Sabah will continue to surge as the state tries to clear a backlog of 10,400 unexamined swab samples in the next three to four days, said Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun today.
Masidi who is also the state’s Covid-19 spokesperson said only when the backlog samples are cleared the exact number of cases will be known.
“Once all the samples are cleared, I believe the rising Covid-19 numbers will go down,” he told reporters in his daily Covid-19 briefing here today.
“But over the next couple of days, the numbers will continue to surge. Most of these samples came from the high-risk areas of Sabah.”
When asked how many samples can be cleared in a day, Masidi, who is also Local Government and Housing Minister said, it will be over quickly as the state health department has outsourced the testing to two private hospitals to overcome the backlog.
Meanwhile, Masidi said the sudden surge of cases in Kota Kinabalu was due to the Kapayan Prison cluster where a total lockdown was imposed today, both at the prison and at the staff quarters in Matambai, Kapayan.
He said Kota Kinabalu today recorded a total of 289 new cases, the highest since the outbreak started, and 231 of the new cases came from the new cluster. – The Vibes, October 20, 2020
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