KOTA KINABALU – Mass screening on prison inmates has been attributed as the main contributor to many of Sabah’s Covid-19 cases today, as the state clocked a record high of 666 infections.
Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said 50.5% of today’s massive caseload came from two prisons – at Kepayan here and Tawau in Sabah's east coast.
“It's Prison Day,” he said with caustic humour.
Kepayan Prison registered 211 (76%) of Kota Kinabalu’s 278 new cases today while Tawau Prison had 124 cases (85.5%) of Tawau’s 145 cases, he said.
“Overall, 449 cases (67.4%) of the total came from clusters, with 99% of the cases in category 1 and 2,” he said in an update on Twitter.
Yesterday, Sabah recorded 646 new cases, a surge of around threefold from the previous day.
The number of daily new cases has fluctuated between 200 and 300 for some months previously.
Sabah hit the lowest in February and April with only two-digit figures.
The massive spike in recorded Covid-19 infections has been largely due to the mass screening of inmates in both the prisons.
There are no details given on the number of inmates the two prisons have.
The last time Sabah hit over 600 new cases was in September last year amid the state elections.
Coincidentally, the spike in cases in Sabah last year were also linked to the prisons in Lahad Datu and Tawau, and subsequently the Kepayan prison.
All inmates are required to undergo screening for Covid-19 as part of the health standard operating procedures. – The Vibes, July 18, 2021
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