CORONAVIRUS | Two university students in Sabah were found to have contracted the Covid-19 virus despite undergoing mandatory quarantine.

This was confirmed by Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (above) during his daily press briefing today.

The two students were among those who were forced to stay in accommodations in Peninsular Malaysia provided by their institutions due to the movement control order (MCO).

They returned to Sabah earlier this month when the government allowed tertiary students to return to their homes.

Noor Hisham said investigations on the source of the infection were still ongoing.

"Although they were quarantined for four weeks, but they would have been exposed to the university staff.

"There are staff who would go in and out of the university. We are investigating (the matter)," he said, adding the university staff were being tested for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said the Covid-19 cluster in Pedas, Negeri Sembilan saw 20 new cases over the 24-hour period ending noon today.

This cluster, involving a large chicken slaughterhouse, has the largest number of active Covid-19 cases of all clusters.

Most of the patients are foreigners.

Other clusters which saw new cases over the same period are the Madrasah Solok Duku (2 new cases), Benus (1), Pasentren (1), Selangor Mansion (1) and Sendayan (1).

There were no new cases over the same period at the three enhanced MCO areas - Pusat Bandara Utara and Kuala Lumpur wholesale market area, Selayang Baru and the Petaling Jaya Old Town market.

Keep up with the latest information on the outbreak in the country with Malaysiakini's free Covid-19 tracker.

Malaysiakini is providing free access to the most important updates on the coronavirus pandemic. You can find them here.

Help keep independent media alive - subscribe to Malaysiakini.