KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 7): The Ministry of Health (MoH) said a total of 268 individuals who had travelled to Sabah — which is currently experiencing a spike in Covid-19 cases — have tested positive for the coronavirus in the two weeks from Sept 20 until yesterday.

As of yesterday, there were 33 new cases involving those who just returned from Sabah.

However, the ministry clarified that not all of them were involved in the recent Sabah state election, as some of them were on vacation while others were there for business matters.

Yesterday, Sabah recorded 219 new cases, with 2,378 total confirmed infections, followed by Kuala Lumpur (2,707 total cases), Selangor (2,451), Kedah (1,447) and Negeri Sembilan (1,062).

From the 219 cases in the state, 120 were detected through screening of symptomatic patients involving 117 Malaysians and three foreigners, 36 cases were from community screening, 30 cases came from the Bangau-Bangau cluster, 19 cases were from the Ramai-Ramai cluster, five cases had close contact with a positive Covid-19 patient, five cases were detected from screening of health workers while the remaining four were from screening for work.

According to the data provided by the MoH’s Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC), seven health districts in Sabah were categorised as red zones — where there are at least 41 active cases — namely Kota Kinabalu, Kunak, Lahad Datu, Papar, Sandakan, Semporna and Tawau.

Sabah had 1,546 active cases from Sept 23 until yesterday — the highest among all states and federal territories.

The ministry said the number of active cases in its report excludes imported cases, inter-state and inter-district travelling.

Meanwhile, Kota Setar in Kedah and Klang in Selangor were the only red zones in Peninsular Malaysia.

Kota Setar had 1,063 active cases. In total, Kedah had 1,106 active cases, making it the second state with the highest number of active cases.

Most of the cases in Kedah emerged from the Tembok cluster that was discovered in Alor Setar prison — the biggest and most active cluster in the country with more than 1,000 active cases.

As for Klang, the health district recorded 55 active cases, bringing total active cases in Selangor for the two-week period to 104.

Some 691 new cases were recorded in Malaysia yesterday, breaking the previous record high of 432 cases on Monday with 2,936 active cases. The country has seen new daily infections in the triple digits for six consecutive days.

In total, 13,504 cases were recorded in the country since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia this January.