KOTA KINABALU (Bernama): A total of 63,826 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years in Sabah have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine through the vaccination programme for the group, so far.

       Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun, who is also the state Covid-19 spokesperson, said the number was 15% of the 426,000 juveniles in the state for the vaccination programme which began on Thursday (Sept 16).

       "The number includes 24,667 adolescents who took the vaccination today. The fully vaccinated adult population is more than 1.56 million people or 56.6%," he said in a statement on Sunday (Sept 19) night.

       Earlier, Chief Minister Datuk Hajiji Noor was reported as saying that Sabah had decided to provide the Covid-19 vaccine for teenagers starting Thursday.

       Masidi said Sabah recorded 1,356 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, taking the cumulative total infections to 185,577 cases with close contact screening as the main contributor to the day’s cases with 766 or 56.5%; followed by symptomatic screening (380 cases); cluster screening (11 cases); and the rest from the other screenings.

       He said 1,912 patients were reported to have recovered, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 160,414, while 4,106 patients are still receiving treatment.

       "A total of 35 deaths were reported today. However, the day’s fatalities did not necessarily occur within 24 hours as some deaths took time to verify and were reported later from the actual date," he said. - Bernama