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NOW ROUNDING | These are the key headlines you may have missed, shortly.
1. The third wave of Covid-19, which has mainly affected Sabah and Kedah, took a new turn as the situation in the Klang Valley also deteriorated. Cases have been increasing slowly but steadily in the last week.
2. With 278 Covid-19 patients still in treatment in Selangor, there is no place as bad as Sabah and Kedah, which have thousands of active cases and enough to cause nervousness, particularly when cases have reached high places. profile such as the Mid Valley Megamall, The Gardens Mall and 1Utama Mall.
3. One of the latest chains of infections spreading in the Klang Valley is the “Sungei Way” group, which to date has recorded 18 cases in Petaling, Gombak and Titiwangsa districts.
4. The authorities are taking no chances and ordered the closure of 298 schools in Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam and Subang Jaya for two weeks from today.
5. Amid mounting concerns in the Klang Valley, Sabah has had to grapple with an even more dire situation, with 488 of 561 new cases coming from the state yesterday.
6. Asked about the pressure on the public health system in Sabah, which Malaysiakini highlighted here, the director general of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, acknowledged that it was “testing”, but stressed that they were still “working well.
7. Despite efforts to increase the capacity of beds to treat Covid-19 patients in Sabah, Malaysiakini learned that hospitals are now activating a protocol that is not normally used when treating Covid-19 cases.
8. The protocol is to allow hospital staff to continue in their role if they test negative twice within 48 hours after being exposed to a Covid-19 patient. Typically, anyone exposed to a Covid-19 patient is asked to self-quarantine for 14 days, even after the test comes back negative.
9. Frontline doctors under work pressure in Sabah are unlikely to be relieved anytime soon, as two other locations in Lahad Datu have been placed under the improved movement control (MCO) order. This typically occurs when cases are so widespread that ordinary means of tracing the chain of infection would take too long to slow the spread.
10. It was not all doom and gloom, as people walking the corridors of power may be relieved to learn that none of them were infected after attending a meeting on October 3 in which a fellow minister present had Covid-19 .
11. However, they are still in quarantine for 14 days. Among them is Defense Minister Ismail Sabri. Working from home, Ismail urged city councils to revoke the licenses of nightclubs and bars that continue to operate, although they are not allowed to reopen during the MCO’s recovery period that will last until the end of the year.
12. Another minister, Khairuddin Aman Razali of PAS, who emerged from a recent controversy in which he was fined for disobeying quarantine rules, focused his gaze on gambling and alcohol, and called for drastic measures to be taken.
13. Amid the backdrop of the Covid-19 threat, the political numbers game continues amid PKR President Anwar Ibrahim is scheduled to meet with Yang di-Pertuan Agong, supposedly to show that he can form the new government. BN General Secretary Annuar Musa will, however, have you believe this is nonsense.
14. National political drama aside, check out our list of Covid-19 affected places yesterday to see if the virus lurks in your backyard.
