Page 87 - MALAYSIA HEALTH SECTOR RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE FIELD

Prison clusters in Sabah - ‘chain of hidden time bombs’

The Benteng LD Cluster

The explosion of COVID-19 transmission at the east coast towns of Sabah
began with the first COVID-19 positive case reported in Tawau and the
subsequent emergence of the Laut Cluster involving illegal immigrants on
1st September 2020 23,24 . The Benteng LD Cluster was identified from the
COVID-19 screening of new illegal immigrant detainees at the Lahad Datu
District Police Headquarters lockup 23-25 . This cluster spread to the Tawau
prison when several confirmed COVID-19 cases identified in prison had a
history of being detained at the Lahad Datu District Police Headquarters and
26
had close contact with the index cases . As of 31st December 2020, this
cluster has reported 1,146 positive cases with a total of 16,592 close
6
contacts screened and one death .

The Penjara Kepayan Cluster

The Penjara Kepayan cluster was the second largest prison cluster in Sabah
and was still active at the time of writing 27-30 . This cluster's index case was
detected positive for COVID-19 from pre-admission screening into Queen
31
Elizabeth I Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, on 14th October 2020 . Upon detection
of the case, as of 18th October 2020, 170 close contacts were screened, and
49 of them were confirmed COVID-19 positive. Subsequent contact tracing
has detected more positive cases, and by 31st December 2020, 1,878 out of
6
3,667 close contacts screened were detected as confirmed COVID-19 cases .

Other prison clusters in Sabah

COVID-19 cases were also reported in other prisons and PTS in Tawau, Kota
Kinabalu, and Sandakan, including the PTS Tawau, Female Prison Kota
Kinabalu, PTS Menggatal in Kota Kinabalu as well as the Sandakan Prison
32
and PTS Sibuga in Sandakan (Figure 4.4).

THIRD WAVE IS COMING 85 THIRD WAVE IS COMING 51