Health authority still investigating cause of 'IPT Sabah' cluster

By Olivia Miwil - May 14, 2020 @ 9:25am

Local students are being screened by health personnel prior to returning home. - Picture courtesy of UMS.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has identified a new Covid-19 "IPT Sabah" cluster after two more students from a local university here tested positive.

State health department director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi said both cases were from the same varsity as the previous one on May 12.

"Based on this, there is now a new cluster for Sabah with three cumulative cases (involving students) until May 13.

"All of them have been admitted while control and preventive activities at the institute are ongoing," she said in a statement.

Dr Christina added that the cause of the infection has yet to be known.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said yesterday that the source of infection could be from infected staff who had the liberty to move around compared to students quarantined at their hostels.

The first local university student here was detected after screening and samples were taken before being allowed to return home.

The process was conducted by Universiti Malaysia Sabah as the coordinator to manage the mass movement of about 7,000 students throughout the state.

Other active Covid-19 clusters in Sabah include Sabah healthcare workers with four still receiving treatment and another one from tabligh Makassar Sabah.

Sabah has 320 cases with 35 still being treated at hospitals.