The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached Sabah, Malaysia, in March 2020. As of the end of 2022, there are 515,000 confirmed cases.
Statistics + Districts Confirmed Recovered Death Active 1 Beaufort 16 14 0 2 2 Beluran 2 2 0 0 3 Keningau 21 19 1 1 4 Kinabatangan 33 24 0 9 5 Kota Belud 7 7 0 0 6 Kota Kinabalu 92 76 4 12 7 Kota Marudu 2 1 0 1 8 Kudat 4 3 0 1 9 Kunak 75 17 0 58 10 Lahad Datu 295 198 0 97 11 Nabawan 2 2 0 0 12 Papar 11 6 0 5 13 Penampang 28 22 1 5 14 Pitas 3 1 0 2 15 Putatan 12 10 0 2 16 Ranau 5 5 0 0 17 Sandakan 44 40 0 4 18 Semporna 309 7 3 299 19 Sipitang 8 4 0 4 20 Tambunan 3 2 1 0 21 Tawau 759 372 2 385 22 Tongod 5 5 0 0 23 Tuaran 33 32 0 1 Total 1,769 869 12 888
+ Case NumberDate of DeathNationalityGenderAgeHospitalised LocationPatient DataSource 1 152 20 March 2020 Male 58 Tawau Hospital Part of the religious gathering cluster. Hospitalised on 9 March 2020 after showing severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) symptoms. 2 2200 4 April 2020 Male 66 Keningau Hospital Had chronic illness. Hospitalised on 26 March 2020. 3 694 10 April 2020 Male 62 Queen Elizabeth Hospital Close contact of a positive case from the religious gathering cluster. Had chronic illness. Hospitalised on 17 March 2020. 4 4532 Male 26 A non-Malaysian male was found dead in Kota Kinabalu with his body are tested positive for the coronavirus on 11 April 2020 through an autopsy. The case is investigated under Royal Malaysia Police investigation. 5 6856 7 May 2020 Female 53 Likas Women and Children's Hospital A medical staff of Ministry of Health in Sabah and had been on a sick leave due to cancer and hypertension. Hospitalised on 5 May. 6 8370 11 June 2020 Female 85 Died at home and body was brought to the Keningau Hospital. 7 8403 12 June 2020 Female 96 Died at home and body was brought to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital. 8 8974 29 July 2020 Male 64 Queen Elizabeth Hospital Had chronic illness. 9 10145 14 September 2020 Female 50 Semporna Hospital Hospitalised on 14 September 2020. 10 10495 19 September 2020 Female 48 Tawau Hospital Had chronic illness. Hospitalised on 18 September 2020. 11 10493 22 September 2020 Male 54 Tawau Hospital Hospitalised on 20 September 2020. 12 10491 27 September 2020 Female 81 Tawau Hospital Hospitalised on 17 September 2020. 13 11185 26 September 2020 Male 70 Had terminal cancer. Died at home and body was brought to the Tawau Hospital. Confirmed to be positive on 29 September 2020.
The top plot shows the total number of cases as a function of time (by date) since 12 March 2020, the date of the first reported case in Sabah. The middle plot shows the number of new cases as reported each day. The bottom plot shows the number of active cases in Sabah.
Timeline March 2020 On 12 March 2020, Sabah reported its first positive case involving a male resident from Tawau District who had been one of the participant in the Muslim religious gathering at Sri Petaling in Kuala Lumpur. He began to develop symptoms after returning and was subsequently transferred to Tawau Hospital. A second positive case was reported the following day in Benoni's Papar District which also originated from the religious gathering where he was then transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital for further treatment. A total of 14 new confirmed cases were recorded within the day. On 14 March, the Sabah State Health Department reported that another 11 new cases were confirmed in the state, bringing the total to 26. A further spike to 82 positive cases was then reported making Sabah the third most affected in Malaysia by the virus after Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. Earlier since the first positive case was reported, the State Health Department had warned that more positive cases were expected. By 18 March, the total positive cases had risen to 103. A further seven infections were recorded on 20 March, raising the total infected to 119 with the first death caused by the virus reported in Tawau involving a 58-year-old man who had been one of the participant of the religious gathering. The religious gathering also caused the closure of palm oil plantations in three districts of Tawau, Lahad Datu and Kinabatangan in late March after several plantation workers who had participated in the gathering were found positive with the virus. On 26 March, Sabah reported its first recovery of a coronavirus patient in Sandakan District. The entire Gaya Island inhabitants in the western coast of Sabah had also been put under close monitoring. 65.6% of the inhabitants were tested and 1,600 samples were taken. By 29 March, Tawau District was declared a red zone with a significant increase in positive cases, surpassing other districts within the state.
April 2020 By early April, a total of 7,173 coronavirus tests had been conducted with the results of positive cases rising to 209. Within the same month, more than 90 people recovered from the virus with three deaths reported since March; the latest involving a 66-year-old man in Tambunan District with a medical history of diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease on 5 April along with a 62-year-old retired senior Sabah government official and tabligh worker with diabetes who died in Kota Kinabalu District on 10 April. On 9 April, a total of 231,980 people had been screened in the state out of which 16,654 samples had been taken for testing. The State Health Department explained that further positive cases would only be known once 4,600 samples were cleared in the following two days by a special task force set up on 8 April. The task force had previously faced a testing backlog following the shortage of reagents. Earlier on 6 April, a body of a 26-year-old man without identity documents was found hanged to a tree in a jungle area at Pondo Village in Gaya Island. His death was believed to be a suicide, which was later confirmed in a subsequent post-mortem. In addition, further screening also identified the deceased as being COVID-19 positive, making the case count as the fourth death for COVID-19 in Sabah.
Through a statement made by the Sabah Health Department on 13 April, a total of 5,007 tests had been done - more than the expected 4,600 backlog samples. According to the findings, a quarter of coronavirus cases in Kota Kinabalu were categorised as being sporadic. 5,983 patients were placed under home quarantine, with 956 in Tawau, 796 in Kota Kinabalu, 684 in Kunak, 624 in Papar, 603 in Penampang, 416 in Kinabatangan, 297 in Keningau and 231 in Sandakan while a further total of 853 people were placed in state-provided quarantine centres. Among the areas - Greater Kota Kinabalu, Penampang District recorded the most sporadic case numbers. Further infection clusters were detected in both Sabah Women and Children's Hospital in Likas and Keningau Hospital from outside source which were then contracted by several of the hospital staff members. Another cluster was identified on 18 April at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital II. By 17 April, Kota Kinabalu District became the second red zone with the second most infection rate after Tawau District. This was followed by Lahad Datu District the following day which became the third red zone. Through a survey of infections within the state, the virus was found to be infecting more males than females, with those infected aged between 1 and 80. It was also discovered that 85% of coronavirus positive patients in the state was asymptomatic. On 30 April, Beluran District which was previously declared as a green zone registered its first positive case.
May 2020 Further cases were detected around the state capital of Kota Kinabalu such as Luyang and further to Sembulan by mid-May. With the limited supply of reagents, the Sabah State Health Department announced that it was unsure of being able to screen an estimated more than 100,000 foreign workers in the state. This was despite the announcement made by the federal government for foreign workers across the country to undergo mandatory screening following a spike in cases amongst them. On 11 May, further cases were detected in four districts comprising Keningau, Lahad Datu, Semporna and Tawau. Most of the newer cases involved returning students and several individuals who had flouted home quarantine rules. A fifth death by the virus was reported within the month on 16 May involving a 53-year-old terminally ill female cancer patient with hypertension who had also been a health worker. By 24 May, another green zone of Kota Marudu District registered its first positive case involving a returnee from Kuala Lumpur. Most of the additional cases in the state capital as well in the whole Sabah was mainly import cases involving returnees from West Malaysia as found through the survey of the State Health Department.
June 2020 On 1 June, Sabah State Health Director Christina Rundi announced that only 12 remaining positive cases were being treated in six specialist hospitals within the state from which a total of 346 cases had been registered in Sabah; of these 329 had recovered and five died. By 11 June, further cases rose to 356 with the sixth virus fatality involving an 85-year-old elderly woman who died at her home in Keningau District within the same day. Her body was subsequently brought into Keningau Hospital with the deceased's close contacts also found to be positive with the virus. The following day, another virus casualty was reported involving an elderly 96-year-old woman who also died at her home.
July 2020 On 29 July, Sabah State Health Director Christina reported a further three new cases in the districts of Lahad Datu, Papar and Penampang, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in the state to 392. Among those infected were primary school students with the eighth fatality victim a 64-year-old Filipino with heart complications.
August 2020 The infection cases continue to climb in August despite no deaths reported in the month. A Roman Catholic church in Kota Kinabalu District decided to suspend Masses for two weeks after one of its parishioners was found to be positive with the virus.
September 2020 On 11 September, Sabah recorded the highest infections rate from a new cluster in Lahad Datu with newer cases passing 300 and becoming the highest case jump of COVID-19 in Malaysia in more than 3 months.
On 28 September, Senior Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that an enhanced MCO would be imposed on the districts of Lahad Datu, Tawau, Kunak, and Semporna between 29 September and October 12. Under this lockdown, non-residents and visitors would not be allowed to enter the district and most business activities apart from essential services would have to cease.
October 2020 On 1 October, Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah confirmed that 118 of the 260 new cases reported that day had occurred in Sabah. 31 cases reported in other Malaysian states were linked to those who had returned from Sabah recently. The Joo Hwa cluster in Sabah was also identified by the Health Ministry.
On 10 October, 40 of the 66 nurses manning intensive care units at Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Kota Kinabalu were quarantined after one of their colleagues tested positive for COVID-19. In response to the outbreak in Sabah, Director-General Noor Hisham announced that the Malaysian Health Ministry had dispatched a total of 475 medical and public health workers to Tawau, Lahad Datu, Semporna and Kota Kinabalu.
November 2020 On 11 November, the Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah identified three new clusters in the state: the Karamunting cluster, Saga cluster and Haven cluster.
August 2021