COVID: Five schools in Kota Kinabalu record positive cases

KOTA KINABALU, April 22  -- Five schools here have recorded COVID-19 positive cases, said Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.

He said the schools are Sekolah Jenis Kebangsaan Cina (SJKC) Shan Tao (three cases); Sekolah Menengah Shan Tao (three); SJKC Chung Hwa (two); SJKC Chung Hwa Likas (one); and Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Lok Yu (one).

“There are allegations, which have gone viral, that schools in Kota Kinabalu and Penampang have recorded COVID-19 cases when, in fact, only five schools (in Kota Kinabalu) have recorded such cases,” he said in a statement today.

He said that the other four schools mentioned in the viral message, namely SJKC Yue Min and Yue Min Kindergarten in Penampang, as well as SJKC St James and Menggatal Lok Yuk Kindergarten in Kota Kinabalu, were free of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Masidi said that based on a Sabah State Health Department report, a total of 160 new COVID-19 cases were recorded today, taking the cumulative total to 57,324.

hat a new cluster was recorded today in Kota Sawit, Kinabatangan, with a cumulative total of 14 cases.

 “The index case was an employee of an oil palm factory who tested positive through the screening of symptomatic individuals on April 13. Subsequent close contact tracing found 13 more positive cases, including one of the employee’s dependent,” he said.

He said the index case was believed to have been infected while visiting her family in the Lahad Datu red zone area, adding that, so far, the factory had been closed and the employees quarantined.  

-- BERNAMA