KOTA KINABALU, Aug 10 — Over 1.12 million or 40.8 per cent of Sabah’s residents have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of yesterday, said state Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun.
Masidi, who is also the state COVID-19 spokesman, said 485,880 or 17.6 per cent of the state’s adult population have received both doses of vaccine and efforts are being made to ensure Sabah reaches the 80 per cent vaccinated community by the end of this year.
He added Sabah will continue to enhance the State Health Department’s (JKNS) capacity and capability in vaccination exercise while ensuring an adequate supply of vaccines in the state.
“In a situation where the COVID-19 is within the community, we are racing against time to vaccinate those eligible for vaccination at an immediate rate.
“This means that the new cases will continue to remain high until more people get vaccinated. Cases will only start to decline when we successfully vaccinate the population at a significant percentage level,” he said via WhatsApp message today.
Meanwhile, Masidi said of the 1,383 new COVID-19 cases recorded today, 1,064 cases were in Categories 1 and 2 (1,064 cases), Category 3 (19 cases), Category 4 (12 cases), Category 5 (six cases) while the remaining cases still under investigation by JKNS.
“Kota Kinabalu districts recorded the highest cases today with 326 cases, almost 24 per cent of the total cases in Sabah, followed by Tawau (168 cases) and Sandakan (138 cases), he said.
He added close contact screenings continue to be the highest contributor of daily cases in the COVID-19 cases in Sabah with 749 cases or 54.2 per cent, followed by symptomatic screening (322 cases/23.3 per cent), cluster screenings (111 cases/8 per cent) and the remaining was detected through targeted screenings.
“A new COVID-19 cluster was recorded at Kampung Timbua, Ranau involving 49 cases. The high number of cases involving close contact is an indication that some of us are still neglecting the standard operating procedure (SOP).
“This is also a reminder for us to reduce social activities with friends, so we are not at the risk of COVID-19 infection. This is because there are COVID-19 carriers who are asymptomatic,” he said.
