Seven consecutive days of Covid-19 deaths in Sabah

 

COVID-19 | Sabah today hit a grim milestone - it marked seven days in a row with Covid-19 deaths - almost all of which were on its east coast.

Since Oct 10, all Covid-19 fatalities have been in the Borneo state.

In the past 30 days alone, the state recorded 35 deaths attributed to Covid-19 - more than the average number of monthly road fatalities in Sabah, which is 30.3 according to one study.

In that same period, Kedah, the state with the second most active cases as of today, saw three deaths while Penang had one. No Covid-19 fatalities were recorded in other states.

As of Oct 13, there were 2,970 individuals in Sabah being treated for Covid-19 - more than half the total number of active cases in the country today.

Figures for Oct 14 are not yet published at the time of writing, but as of yesterday, 62 percent of cases in treatment are located in the east coast districts of Sandakan, Lahad Datu, Tawau, Semporna and Kunak.

The conditions are so severe in these areas, that medical frontliners there have dubbed it "Little Wuhan" - a reference to Wuhan, China where the virus was first discovered.

The Health Ministry has not explained why Sabah is experiencing a relatively high death rate in the past month.

In its daily announcements, the ministry has also stopped providing details of how long the deceased were in treatment.

However, case numbers attributed to the deceased indicated they were not in treatment for very long at all.

For example, three individuals who passed away today were ascribed the case numbers "17,307", "17,308" and "17,309".

Case numbers are assigned chronologically as patients are diagnosed.

Yesterday, the total number of cases was 16,880 - indicating the three likely had less than 24 hours of treatment before they succumbed to illnesses.

Earlier, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the likelihood of death increases if patients have co-morbidities and they delay treatment.

On Oct 9, Malaysiakini reported that the number of cases in Sabah of unknown origin had sparked concern among the medical fraternity. - Mkini