Masidi Manjun
KOTA KINABALU (Oct 3): The State Government has allowed official government and private events, including launching ceremonies, seminars and workshops, to be held face to face starting tomorrow (October 4).
Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun said the physical official events were allowed on the condition that the attendees were fully vaccinated and limited to 50 per cent capacity of the premises.
Meanwhile, he said unvaccinated individuals due to health or medical reasons that were verified by a registered medical officer would be required to undergo pre-event test using saliva self-test kit witnessed by the organizer or verified by medical practitioners prior to attending the event.
Sabah recorded 767 new Covid-19 infections on Sunday, a marginal decrease of 17 cases compared to Saturday.
Fourteen deaths were reported, including three in Tawau, two each in Lahad Datu and Kota Kinabalu and one in Kudat, Tuaran, Kota Marudu, Penampang, Semporna, Ranau and Sandakan.
Masidi, who is Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson, said Kota Kinabalu topped the list with 112 new cases, followed by Ranau (56), Keningau (55), Lahad Datu (53), Kota Belud (45) and Penampang (40).
Overall, he said 15 districts registered a decrease in cases, 11 districts saw a slight increase and one district, namely Kinabatangan, maintained its Saturday’s figure.
He said Ranau recorded a decrease of 21 cases, followed by Beluran -16 cases, Tenom -14 cases, Pitas -12 cases and Kunak -11 cases.
Meanwhile, Kota Kinabalu registered an increase of 33 cases, followed by Kudat +19 cases, Sipitang +12 cases and Papar +11 cases.
Masidi said close contact screenings remained as the main contributor to the daily cases at 54.63 per cent.
Additionally, he said the 35.07 per cent from symptomatic screenings showed that the trend of infections in Sabah was no longer specific to certain localities, but has spread throughout the community.
Based on this analysis, he said the approach that relied entirely on frontliners and enforcement was no longer effective because no one could predict who the virus carriers or infected persons could be.
“We need to come to terms with the reality that we have to live with the virus and the best practice is to comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs), in addition to supporting the ongoing vaccination efforts.”
On another note, he said the data updating system for the late registration in daily infections was in good condition even though the number of backlog cases over four to five days has slightly increased compared to the day before.
Of the 767 new cases, 91.52 per cent fell under Category 1 and 2, five cases in Category 3, six in Category 4 and three in Category 5.
On the other hand, Masidi said 1,096 Covid-19 patients have recovered while 2,790 were still undergoing treatment, including 1,078 in hospitals, 1,689 in public Low-Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC), 16 in temporary detention centres or prisons and seven in private facilities.
“There are 132 patients who require critical care, including 119 in intensive care unit (ICU) or repurposed critical care and 13 in open wards, while 50 require ventilators.
“The number of patients in stage four and five who have yet to complete their vaccination is 286 (63.41 per cent.”
Meanwhile, the EMCO at Taman Pantai Lok Kawi in Papar, will end on October 4 as scheduled.
Malaysia’s Covid-19 recovery cases continue to exceed the number of new infections when 14,454 recoveries were reported today compared to 9,066 new cases.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 8,907 cases (98.2 per cent) of the total new cases were in categories 1 and 2 while the remaining 159 cases (1.8 per cent) were in categories 3, 4 and 5.
“A total of 815 cases are being treated in the intensive care unit with 355 cases requiring respiratory support,” he said in a statement on Covid-19 development here today.
Dr Noor Hisham added that six new clusters were detected today, with three at workplaces and three in the community, which bring the cumulative figure for active clusters to 1,008.
The data on fatalities will be uploaded via Github and CovidNow at https://covidnow.moh.gov.my.
Earlier, Dr Noor Hisham said the number of Covid-19 new cases in Malaysia today dropped to below 10,000 with 9,066 recorded up to noon.
The last time the country recorded Covid-19 cases below 10,000 was on July 12 with 8,574 cases.