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KOTA KINABALU: Sabah could enter a full-scale motion control order (MCO) or crash after a spike in Covid-19 cases since the start of the new year.
Housing and Local Government Minister Masidi Manjun said authorities may not have a choice if numbers continue to rise in the state.
He added that Sabah may even have to ban interstate travel, including in-state and out-of-state flights, if the situation worsens.
Masidi, who is Sabah’s official Covid-19 spokesperson, said that the trend in the last seven days before the new year saw some reduction in cases, with 157 cases the lowest and 299 the highest, with an average of 232 cases per day.
However, since the new year, the numbers have increased steadily from January 1 to 254 cases, January 2 (259), January 3 (316), January 4 (303), January 5 (383) and 405 cases registered in the last 24 hours.
“While there was some relief that the trend was down at the end of last year, we now have no more parkland districts. In fact, we now have 19 red zone districts, ”he said today during his Covid-19 briefing.
“We could have allowed complacency to creep into our compliance with SOPs, so once again I appeal to the people.
“If the cases get worse, and I’m sure the health authorities are watching, we may have no choice but to go back to the MCO. We want to avoid that, help us reduce the numbers. “
Masidi said the government is concerned about the lack of compliance with the SOPs by the people in all districts.
“To be honest, I am a little concerned that the statistics may increase to some extent in the next few days. By then the symptoms will appear for those who had a good time during the New Year’s party and were infected, “he said.
He noted that almost 60% of the 405 cases registered today were detected from close contact examinations.
“The importance is that this means that there is an increase in infections in the community, people are more exposed to the virus. Community infection is becoming a new threat to us.
“This is the trend that we have been seeing for the last week, which is group infections related to Christmas and New Year gatherings,” Masidi said, urging people to limit social gatherings.
“We also need to limit the number of people we meet, even more so if we don’t know them,” Masidi said.
In upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations, he said the government will need to re-evaluate social activities if infections have not subsided.
“Obviously, we want to allow some freedom, but I can tell you that we are looking at all the options and if the need arises, the first thing to check is socialization.”
Earlier, Masidi shared the staggering statistics on infections involving children, with 5,142 children under the age of 12 testing positive for the virus last year.
Of that number, 2,152 children are under the age of five, while 707 are babies under one year of age. Four children succumbed to Covid-19 in Sabah last year, two of them under the age of one.
He added that the state registered a total of 112 conglomerates last year, of which 49 are still active now, while the rest have ended.
For the record, Sabah has a cumulative infection of 38,960 cases as of now, with 2,310 still receiving treatment at low-risk hospitals or treatment centers. Sixty patients are in intensive care units, of which 19 require ventilation.
In another note, Masidi said that no other member of the state cabinet had to undergo tests or was quarantined after Chief Deputy Minister Jeffrey Kitingan tested positive for the virus recently.
He said Jeffrey is believed to have contracted the virus when he returned to his Keningau constituency over the holiday period.
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