48 students from SMK Tulid hostel sent for quarantine

 By Olivia Miwil - January 23, 2021 @ 9:54pm

48 students from the hostel at SMK Tulid have been quarantined as they were close contacts of a teacher who had contracted Covid-19. - Pic courtesy of a reader

KENINGAU: 48 students from the hostel at SMK Tulid here have been quarantined as they were close contacts of a teacher who had contracted Covid-19.

Tulid assemblyman Flovia Ng confirmed a message that went viral that the group of Form Five students were sent to Institut Pendidikan Guru (IPG) here for screening and quarantine.

"48 students have been screened and quarantined at the IPG. 29 of the students are close contacts while 19 are not.

"All of them have symptoms (associated with Covid-19). RTK-Ag tests have been done on six students and one of them is positive for Covid-19," she said, adding the infected teacher and student have been referred to the Keningau Hospital.

Following the incident, Ng added that the school has to follow the rules based on the standard operating procedures given by the Education Ministry.

She also urged the public to heed experts' advice particularly from the Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah as everyone plays an important role in breaking the chain of infection.

"Practice social distancing which I cannot emphasise too much, avoid social gatherings which are not necessary.

"Teach and inculcate the importance of social distancing especially in schools on our children. Practice personal hygiene."

Meanwhile, according to a source, students who are not being sent to the centre have to be at the dormitory for 10 days starting today.

It is learnt that the teacher was found positive for Covid-19 yesterday, days after doing a swab test for the virus.

Following the finding, the Health Ministry, using a Civil Defence Force truck, brought the students to the quarantine centre at around 3pm.

Three days ago, it was also reported that there were 36 students returning to school hostels who had tested positive for Covid-19 during screenings done between Jan 16 and Jan 20.

Sabah recorded 498 Covid-19 cases today with a new cluster dubbed Kampung Bombalai involving 16 tahfiz students and teachers from Kalabakan.