KOTA KINABALU, May 28 — As Covid-19 cases in Sabah rose to 308 today, two Opposition lawmakers called for stricter measures to prevent the situation from getting out of control.
Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin proposed that the state government set a cut-off point of 500 new cases, after which a full lockdown should be implemented.
“Sabah recorded 308 new cases today. I call upon Sabah state government to set a cut-off point of 500 before we implement SOPs for MCO too.
“We have experienced more than a thousand new cases per day before when our public health system was over burdened,” he said.
Yesterday, Sabah recorded 217 new Covid 19 cases.
Chan, who is Sabah DAP secretary, said that it would be beneficial to have the cut-off point announced beforehand, as it would remind the public not to be complacent.
“Bear in mind, no one (from other states) would be able to assist us if our public health system crippled once our capacity couldn’t handle the surge of Covid cases,” he said.
His proposal was joined by Luyang assemblyman Ginger Phoong who said that the state should also consider prohibiting all kinds of gatherings including dine-ins for the time being.
“Looking at Sabah’s figure today, it is alarming and worrying. I call upon the state government to tighten the SOP and especially disallow dine-in and stop all kind of gathering for a certain period,” he said.
Despite the nationwide MCO, Sabah has adopted SOPs more akin to a conditional movement control order, with businesses allowed to operate as usual but with shorter operation hours.
It did however implement an inter-district travel ban over the Hari Raya and Kaamatan holiday period to help ease movement and contain the virus.
Despite this, there has been an upward trend in daily cases, with many clusters originating from Hari Raya visits.
Sabah was recording new cases in double digits until May 19 when figures hit 160 from 95 the day before. Nationally, the country has been hitting new records including today, with 8,290 cases, up from yesterday’s 7,857.
