Shahelmey
KOTA KINABALU: The state government has denied the allegation by a Democratic Action Party (DAP) assemblyman that the government is passive in its action to address the Covid-19 pandemic in Sabah.
Community Development and People’s Wellbeing Minister Shahelmey Yahya said that the government had deployed all human resources available to maximise the vaccination rate in Sabah.
He said that active actions include identification, vaccination and enforcement of the standard operating procedure (SOP).
“The government requests the people to continue following the SOP that has been enforced and to postpone any social events,” he said.
“The Covid-19 infections are now in the community, causing people to face the risk of being infected and infecting,” he said in a statement yesterday in reply to the statement made by Luyang assemblyman Phoong Jin Zhe who is also Pakatan Harapan Sabah youth chief.
Shahelmey who is also Sabah’s health exco, explained that Sabah registered 3,376 cases and 17 deaths on Tuesday.
“A total of 2,076 cases occurred between one and six days from the date the samples are taken, while 1,300 cases occurred seven days or more from the date the samples are taken,” he said.
He added that the factor behind the backlog is because when cases rise, more identification activities take place among the close contacts.
“And so, this increases the burden of testing at laboratories although there have been improvements such as outsourcing, increasing the number of personnel carrying out the testing, increasing work hours among laboratory staff until midnight and increasing technical test capabilities,” he said.
Shahelmey also informed that Sabah has begun to receive the CanSino vaccine.
He said that on August 24, Sabah received the first batch of 53,000 doses of CanSino vaccine and it will receive another batch this month.
He added that as of August 23, a total of 1,469,376 people have received the first dose of vaccine while 866,228 have received both dosages.
“The vaccination rate in Sabah is 53.3 percent and 31.4 percent have received both doses,” he said.
Shahelmey also said that the Health Department and government of Sabah are continuing efforts to increase the vaccination rate through outreach programmes in rural areas, and at vaccination centres for walk-ins to allow more people in Sabah to receive the vaccine.
“I urge all people in Sabah to take the vaccine to save their own lives and that of their family,” he said.
He added that based on the data from the Sabah Health Department, 80 percent of patients who have been admitted into the Intensive Care Unit are those who have not been vaccinated.
“Now, the infection is in the community and all people are at risk of being infected and infecting others,” he said.
Phoong has urged the state government to tighten policies and introduce new ways to contain this pandemic.
He claimed the Health Department is running out of hands. Therefore, patients are facing a challenging issue as they are unable to get in touch with the authorities.
“Furthermore, the government is unable to monitor those who are undergoing quarantine effectively. For example, those who are infected are not informed to undergo mandatory quarantine and despite developing severe symptoms, the health department is unable to respond immediately,” said the DAPSY Sabah chief in a statement on Tuesday.
He called on the state government to pour in more human resources to help the Health Department and the people of Sabah.