KOTA KINABALU, Oct 19 — The Sabah government has today denied rumours of an impending total lockdown due to the state being the ground zero of the country’s Covid-19 third wave, but said it remains an option should the pandemic take a rapid turn for the worse.
Sabah’s appointed Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said rumours that the state capital Kota Kinabalu would go into a total lockdown due to the high number of cases is not true at the moment.
“For the time being, we are not at that stage yet. But it’s an option in the future,” he said during his daily press conference on the matter which began yesterday.
Sabah mencatatkan jumlah kes tertinggi iaitu 643 kes (74.3%). Lebih banyak ujian makmal telah dijalankan di Sabah dan yang dihantar ke Semenanjung Malaysia.
— KKMalaysia🇲🇾 (@KKMPutrajaya) October 19, 2020
Daripada 643 kes dilaporkan di Sabah, 183 dari kluster-kluster sedia ada. Sejumlah 343 pula dari saringan kontak rapat. pic.twitter.com/ReMaZPWeMx
“However, we are open to any option that will flatten the curve and bring down cases to management level.”
Masidi said that the National Security Council will take into consideration all its options before making any decisions.
“There is a lot to consider. Aside from Covid, we have to consider the economy — we haven’t recovered from the previous movement control order, and many people are still relying on daily income to make a living.
“The main crux is for us to manage the pandemic,” he said.
The state recently opened up its economic sector again, with stricter Standard Operating Procedure. Only sports and recreation sectors were still banned.
The country recorded three more Covid-19 deaths today, all in Sabah.
Out of the 865 new cases in the country today, 643 were from Sabah.
