Sabah braces for anticipated increase in cases



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PETALING JAYA: In light of the anticipated increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in Sabah, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob says that the armed forces have agreed to activate their military field hospital in Tawau.

“The field hospital will treat non-Covid-19 cases and will handle trauma and emergency surgeries.

“The field hospital will have 100 beds, five specialists and eight doctors, among others,” he said yesterday.

This, he said, would allow Tawau’s public hospitals to focus on treating Covid-19 patients.

Ismail Sabri, who is also a defense minister, said the air force would provide daily flights for the logistics needs of the Health Ministry, including the transportation of medical personnel.

“There will be daily flights to peninsular Malaysia to transport swab samples as Sabah’s ability to conduct mass testing is limited,” he said, adding that Sabah’s borders would be closed starting tomorrow.

Four transit quarantine centers will be established in the state to monitor the number of Covid-19 cases among illegal immigrants following a proposal from the Sabah National Security Council.

In Selangor, Ismail Sabri said an improved motion control order was imposed on the workers’ shelter at Tropicana Golf and Country Resort (TGCR) for two weeks starting at midnight tomorrow.

However, he said the clubhouse and residential units in the complex were not affected.

“The authorities, including the state ones, would organize the shipment of food to those affected, since they would not be allowed to leave their homes,” he said.

TGCR, in a Facebook post last night, said that five of its employees had tested positive.

Two of them had not entered the facility since September 17 after they returned from Sabah.

The remaining three, a field worker and two non-customer-facing employees, tested positive during their self-quarantine at their shelters.

TGCR said their shelter, which is not on their premises, will undergo sanitation and disinfection.

The 1Utama shopping complex was also ordered to close for seven days starting tomorrow for disinfection and decontamination work after some workers at the complex tested positive for Covid-19.

Ismail Sabri said health authorities had started contact tracing and detection, adding that around 800 workers were employed there.

In a Facebook post, 1Utama said its staff and tenants had been tested as a precaution.

It also indicated that Mac City Service Center employees and close contacts of Parkson Elite staff had also tested negative.

The Health Ministry confirmed that the small number of cases in 1Utama were not linked or transmitted from a single source, “and infected people did not show symptoms during their working days at our tenant outlets,” he said.



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