KOTA KINABALU: Students sitting for the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination that began Wednesday (March 2) have been urged to ensure that they observe the standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent Covid-19, says Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun (pic).

       "We hope that teachers and students comply at all times with all

       SOPs set by the Health Ministry, '' the minister in charge of Covid-19 matters in Sabah said in wishing the students success in the examination.

       In disclosing the daily Covid-19 cases, Masidi said there was a new educational cluster - the Jalan Kiulu Cluster in Tuaran - was detected Wednesday.

       He said currently there were a total of 41 active clusters in Sabah.

       Masidi, meanwhile, said that new Covid-19 infections in Sabah increased slightly by 78 cases to 2,236 cases Wednesday, compared to 2,158 cases on Tuesday.

       He said the rate of new cases was expected to continue in the next few days in view of Sabah's current infection rate of 1.0.

       "The Sabah Health Department expects the number of new cases in the next few days to hover at around the same number of cases today, either increasing slightly or decreasing slightly," he said in a statement Wednesday.

       He said seven districts recorded three-digit cases - Kota Kinabalu with 781 cases, followed by Tuaran (170 cases), Penampang (138 cases), Kota Belud (113 cases), Papar (110 cases), Keningau (108 cases) and Tawau (103 cases).

       He said a total of 17 districts recorded double-digit case numbers, while three other districts, namely Kunak, Semporna and Kalabakan recorded single-digit daily infections.

       A total of 2,217 individuals, or 99.16% of the 2,236 new cases Wednesday, were under Category 1 and 2, followed by eight cases each in Category 3 and 4 while three cases were in Category 5, Masidi added.

       On PICKids, so far, he said the programme had successfully vaccinated 51,049 out of 411,400 children between the ages of five and 11 years old who were eligible to be vaccinated.

       He said a total of 301 cases Wednesday involved children under 11 years old who had not been vaccinated, with 168 of them being children who had not been eligible for the vaccine as they were under five years old.