KOTA KINABALU: Lockdowns are no longer effective in curbing Covid-19 infections, said Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun.
In this situation where the virus is already widespread in the community, Masidi said what needed to be done is to speed up vaccination among the people.
He said Sabah had received large supply of vaccine in the third week of July and hoped to receive more this month.
The state received an increase in vaccine doses over the last 10 days of July and administered 374,214 doses between July 21 and 31. The highest number of daily doses administered was 48,300 on July 31.
“We hope to get more supplies as agreed upon (and) according to the scheduled time this month and continue vaccination at an average rate of 50,000 doses per day in August,” he said.
New Covid-19 cases in Sabah have surged to a record high of 1,166 on Monday, which brought the tally to 86,899.
Three deaths were reported in Kota Kinabalu, as well as a new cluster, namely Sibulu Cluster in Tenom, which involved workers’ quarters at a construction site of a hydro company.
Masidi said close contact screenings remained the largest contributor of new positive cases with 674 cases, or 57.8 per cent of the total.
Another 171 cases (14.7 per cent) were detected through symptomatic screenings and 147 cases (12.6 per cent) from existing clusters.
“The high number of close contacts indicates that many people have been infected by Covid-19,” the Sabah Covid-19 spokesperson said.
Of the 1,166 new cases, Kota Kinabalu registered 234 cases, followed by Penampang (123), Tawau (106), Beaufort (84), Tuaran (83), Papar (73), Kunak (68), Sandakan (61), Keningau (59), Tenom (41), Ranau (40) and Telupid (38).
Meanwhile, Kota Belud recorded 29 cases, Sipitang (21), Putatan (20), Lahad Datu (14), Kinabatangan (14), Beluran (14), Kuala Penyu (14), Kota Marudu (8), Tambunan (6), Pitas (5), Tongod (4), Semporna (3), Kudat (2), Kalabakan (1) and Nabawan (1).
All districts registered new infections. Tambunan was reclassified from yellow to orange zone.
Masidi said the only mitigating factor for the soaring high infections was that most patients did not need hospitalization.
He said 70.3 per cent of the cases on Monday were under category 1 and 2. The 322 patients under category 1 did not have any symptoms while the 495 cases under category 2 experienced mild symptoms.
“Patients under both categories do not need to be hospitalized for treatment. They will be placed in Low-Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC).”
On another note, Masidi pointed out that 19 out of the 1,166 cases on Monday were babies aged below one, 70 cases were young children between one and five years old and 69 cases were senior citizens.
Meanwhile, he said the Sibulu Cluster in Tenom involved Covid-19 transmissions at workplace, namely a hydro construction site at Mukim Kuala Tomani. He said the index case is a 46-year-old male foreign worker who lives in Kem 3, Sibulu. The man started experiencing symptoms since July 24 before confirmed to be positive for Covid-19 at TMC Tenom Clinic three days later, and was subsequently admitted to PKRC for further treatment.
Of the 114 samples taken, 55 were positive including 35 new cases on Monday, whereas 54 samples came back negative and five pending results.
On the other hand, Masidi said 580 patients have been discharged from hospital or recovered from Covid-19.
A total of 4,404 patients are still undergoing treatment, including 899 in hospitals, 3,454 in PKRC and 47 in temporary detention centres or prisons.
There were 113 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) and 31 required ventilators.