Masidi
KOTA KINABALU: Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said that the Covid-19 virus is already in the community.
“This means that it will be easier for people to be infected and more people will be infected,” he said.
He added that the large-scale screening conducted by the Sabah Health Department has proven the assumption.
“The more screening carried out, the more positive cases are detected. Before this, infections are localized and the total is not that many.
“Close contacts have become the highest contributor for daily cases, with 60 percent on July 30, 2021. The close contacts have their own network of friends and they have probably infected their friends, who in turn infected other friends.
“This is the reason for the multiplication in the daily cases, which is called the multiplier effect,” said Masidi who is also the state Covid-19 spokesperson.
He added that since the Health Department is expanding their screening, more positive cases have been detected.
Masidi also said that when the virus is in the community, imposing the lockdown is no longer effective to stop the spread.
“Each of us are probably unaware of being the virus carrier, irrespective of whether we have been vaccinated or not. We can infect the people around us even if we are in lockdown or live in the area under EMCO. Before this, the lockdown was an effective method to contain the infection to a limited area. But now the infection is in the community.
Masidi went on to explain that endless lockdowns or EMCO have nearly crippled the economy.
“Many companies have ceased operation or experienced huge losses. Many people have lost their source of livelihood and are now dependent on government help. They want to work again to feed their family.
Likewise, the government is also limited in its ability to keep giving out aids and subsidies.
“We need to balance lives and livelihood. And this cannot be done with only the lockdown and EMCO approaches.
He added that the key to fighting and managing the pandemic is by following the SOP and raising the rate of vaccination of the people.
“The Sabah Health Department’s capacity in vaccination has reached 50,000 doses a day and this will be raised to around 60,000 doses daily, depending on the available stocks,” he said.
Masidi added that the people are tired in their confinement and probably have become careless with the SOP observance.
“But total adherence to the SOP will help us to avoid being infected. Vaccination will give us immunity from the virus infection to about 90 percent. We can still be infected, but the effect will be mild and will not require treatment and hospitalization. It is not life threatening,” he said.
He stressed that increased vaccination rate in the Sabah community will help the state achieve herd immunity while strict observance and enforcement of the SOP have been proven more efficient in reducing the number of daily infections.
“The efficacy of this approach has been proven elsewhere. What we need is enough vaccine supplies and an uninterrupted delivery schedule,” said Masidi.