KOTA KINABALU, June 16 — Sabah is believed to have recorded its first Covid-19 cluster from festivities during Kaamatan, from a village in Inanam.

State Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the new Kionsom Kecil cluster is suspected to be from a Harvest Festival celebration last May 31.

"The index case was a 31-year-old man working with Jijiko Engineering Sdn Bhd in Inanam. He was detected from symptomatic screenings at the Jesselton Medical Centre on June 9,” he said in his daily Covid-19 briefing.

The man was isolated in a quarantine centre after testing positive and authorities have since carried out screening on 86 of his close contacts. From these, 27 were found positive. To date, 40 people from this cluster have been diagnosed with Covid-19.

Masidi said the authorities are waiting for 34 more samples to return.

Masidi said the state government has decided to standardise all deaths outside of the hospital to be treated or considered as Covid-19 deaths until an RTK-AG or PCR test proves them negative.

Masidi said that the SOP for all deaths should be reported to the nearest police station and then forwarded to the district health office for action

"Bodies will be taken to the morgue by health officials, with the help of police, for the RTK-AG or PCR tests to be conducted,” he said.

Those that test positive will be handled as per the current guidelines, with the respective religious departments to decide on their burial sites.

Those without expressed religions will be referred to their village chiefs.

Meanwhile, any cross district movement of bodies will have to obtain permission from the district health office of where the body is to be buried, as well as the district police of where the death occurred.

Sabah today reported 184 cases, a decline of 44 cases from yesterday, and three deaths.