KOTA KINABALU, July 24 — The sharp increase in daily Covid-19 cases from 516 yesterday to 712 today clearly shows that the people of Sabah are still not fully complying with the standard operating procedure (SOP) aimed at curbing the pandemic.

Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun said this could be seen from the fact that 53.8 per cent or 383 of today’s new cases were detected from close contact tracing compared to 112 cases or 15.7 per cent from the screening of existing clusters and 88 cases or 12.4 per cent from targeted screening.

"We are now in the recovery phase, there is a possibility that the community is complacent about complying with movement control, among them ensuring that they always stay at home and reduce movement, because of the perception that we are in the recovery period.

"The high number (of daily cases) among the close contact category is also a sign that more people are becoming carriers of the virus and there is a possibility that they may have infected their friends. This will cause the total number of infections to double,” he told Bernama via the WhatsApp application today.

As such, he advised the people of Sabah to always adhere to all the stipulate SOPs and to only leave their homes if necessary.

Masidi said that based on today’s cases, the Kota Kinabalu district recorded the highest number of daily infections out of the 27 districts in Sabah, with 161, followed by Sandakan (98), Beaufort (72), Penampang (65), and Tawau (33). — Bernama