KOTA KINABALU: Sabahans have watched in horror how their state has gone from having a relatively low number of cases in the first half of the year to being one with most new infections in the country in the space of just a month.
After the initial case spikes at the start of the year, attributed to the year-end holidays, infections fell to low numbers between February and mid-May, and rarely breached the 200 mark.
But the cases picked up after that, fluctuating between 200 and 300 cases.
After a brief reprieve, the numbers soared again and the situation worsened just a little over a month ago on July 17 when infections hit more than 600 cases.
The new infections breached the 1,000 mark for the first time this year on July 30 (from 776 cases the previous day) and the upward trend has remained since.
A total of 31,309 new cases were recorded between July 30 and Aug 19, the most recorded over a specific period of time in Sabah. This also brought the cumulative number of cases in the state to 113,929, with 24,019 still active.
There have been a total of 850 deaths.
The 2,583 cases detected over the past 24 hours yesterday meant the record for new cases was broken for the third consecutive day.
And as of Aug 19, Sabah has averaged 1,971 cases a day in the last seven days, putting the state second behind Selangor, which averaged 6,674 cases within the same period.
Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Masidi Manjun had attributed the massive surge in the state to complacency in following SOPs, which could also be due to lockdown fatigue.
Masidi, who is also the state local government and housing minister, said infections would continue to rise unless more vaccinations were carried out.
He also said that besides close contact infections, sporadic infections were on the rise, which meant the virus was prevalent in the community.
“We don’t know who are the ones spreading it or how it is being spread,” he said.
He said lockdowns were no longer effective in curbing infections and ramping up vaccinations among citizens had become the key to reducing the number of cases.
Consultant paediatrician Dr Kew Seih Teck agreed that the virus had spread widely in the community and that movement control orders may do more harm than good as the economy would be severely affected.
“People are suffering beyond Covid-19 infections. In my opinion, low uptake of vaccination and partly the low distribution of vaccine stock to Sabah have contributed to our current stage,” he told FMT.
Masidi noted, however, that the highly infectious Delta variant was not widespread in Sabah.
“Except for the three cases involving the crew of a navy vessel two months ago, who have since recovered and returned to their base in Lumut, I am not aware of any new Delta variant case,” he told FMT.
Vaccination situation
Being aware that lockdowns are no longer a viable solution to curbing infections, Sabah has accelerated its vaccination drive to achieve herd immunity before October.
Masidi had said that the state targeted an average 50,000 doses a day this month. The state health department managed to surpass that target on Aug 19, administering more than 60,000 jabs in a single day.
Besides having many far-flung areas by virtue of Sabah being a large state and available stock, an uninterrupted supply of vaccine from the peninsula is key to ramp up the vaccination process in the state.
Masidi had repeatedly signalled this in the past, that the exercise will be hampered if the federal government does not maintain consistent supply of vaccines to the state.
Realising that it cannot be too dependent on its federal counterparts, and coupled with a push from state opposition lawmakers, Sabah recently decided to buy its own stock of vaccines.
State GLCs were ordered to use part of their profits to purchase vaccines for their staff, with the balance to be donated for public vaccination.
The state also allowed vaccination centres (PPVs) to start accepting walk-in recipients last week, including for eligible non-citizens, although this has come under fire from the opposition.
The opposition said this measure has opened the risk of wider infections due to the massive crowds converging at mega PPVs, and instead urged the government to decentralise the operations by opening up more smaller centres.
Masidi then said the government was working on improving the process, pointing out that state secretary Safar Untong, who is the state Covid-19 management committee chairman, was fine-tuning the system.
However, despite the efforts, only 25.8% of Sabah’s adult population has received full vaccination as of Aug 18, the lowest in the country, while 49.4% have received at least their first dose.
No more green zones in Sabah
In May, Sabah had the most number of green zones in the country, located in the interior districts, but all 27 districts are now red zones.
Six of the 27 districts currently have four-figure infections, with the most affected being Kota Kinabalu, which has 5,299 active cases, followed by Tawau (2,974), Penampang (2,304), Sandakan (1,886), Tuaran (1,737), Keningau (1,283) and Papar (1,003).
Southwestern Kuala Penyu district and interior Nabawan district were the last two remaining areas with only two-digit infections on Aug 18, but have now joined most of the other districts with three-digit infections.
There are also a total of 107 localities under enhanced movement control order (EMCO), with the most in Tawau at 30. - FMT
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