Kota Kinabalu: Sabah is expected to have its own Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) when moving to the endemic phase soon, given the traffic of visitors from neighboring countries Philippines and Indonesia.
Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the State Covid-19 Management Committee would wait for the national SOPs to be released in full detail first.
“This will enable the committee to discuss and make adjustments (to the SOPs) where necessary.
“There might be a need to fine-tune the SOPs for Sabah as we take into account the numerous visitors that travel to Sabah via water from the Philippines and Indonesia.
“Sabah wants to ensure that every international visitor that enters the State is fully vaccinated and boosted,” he said in a statement, Tuesday.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob earlier announced that the country would move to the endemic phase and fully reopen its borders April 1.
Sabah’s cases continued to decrease to 1,216 on Tuesday from 1,235 the day earlier. However, it may not necessarily mean that the Covid-19 situation is stabilising, said Masidi.
“Only 12 out of 27 districts in Sabah recorded a decrease in cases, while 15 recorded an increase.
“The rate of sporadic infections remains high at 64.6 per cent, which is two thirds of Sabah’s caseload. Hence, the downward trend does not necessarily reflect that Sabah’s Covid-19 situation is in a stabilisation phase,” he said.
Five deaths were recorded, two in Kota Kinabalu and one each in Keningau, Tuaran and Tawau.
No new clusters were identified. However seven clusters were ended on Tuesday, namely the Jalan Pertukangan Cluster (Sandakan), Teritipan Cluster (Kota Marudu), Lorong Api-Api Cluster (Kota Kinabalu), Jalan Sri Balung Cluster (Tawau), Jalan Pendidikan Ranau Cluster (Ranau) and Sungai Batang Batu 10 Cluster (Sandakan).
“Another ended cluster is the Monterior Cluster (Beaufort). There are 31 active clusters in Sabah to date,” he added.
Masidi said three districts recorded three-digit cases, namely Kota Kinabalu (284), Penampang (137) and Papar (110) while 19 districts recorded double-digit cases.
“It is noticeable that certain districts recording two-digit cases recorded a significant increase, namy Keningau (+31), Sandakan (+24), Kota Belud (+20) and Putatan (+25).
“Kunak and Tongod did not record any new cases,” he added.
Masidi said the majority of cases are mild, with 1,199 out of 1,216 cases being category one and two infections, which is 98.6 per cent.
“Three cases are in category three, 11 in category four and three in category five,” he added.
Some 3,060 Covid-19 patients have been discharged from the hospital while 1,292 patients are currently receiving treatment at hospitals, low risk quarantine and treatment centres (PKRCs), prisons/temporary detention centres and private facilities.
On Sabah’s immunisation programme, Masidi said 11,215 individuals were vaccinated on Mar 7, of which 8,999 were adults while 142 were teenagers and 2,074 were children.
As of Mar 7, he said a total of 2,414,485 individuals have completed both doses, of which 77.32 per cent were adults, while 2,524,471 have gotten their first dose, of which 78.04 per cent were adults.
Masidi added that 339,417 teenagers have received their first dose, while 313,909 have completed both doses, which is 73.65 per cent of the teenage population. A total of 64,925 children have received their first dose.
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