Health DG: Polls can go on
‘Situation in Sabah under control despite increase in cases’
PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry feels there is no need to postpone the Sabah election despite the ever-increasing number of Covid19 cases in the state as the situation is under control.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said they have been observing and monitoring the situation and have introduced measures to contain the outbreak.
“We think we are able to contain and mitigate the whole situation.
“From the judgement of the Health Ministry, the situation in the state is under control.
“More importantly, everyone, be it frontliners or members of the public, must comply with the SOP so that we can break the chain of infections,” he said at a press conference yesterday.
Dr Noor Hisham said for the elections, voters who were positive Covid-19 would not be allowed to go out and cast their votes as their infectivity rate was very high.
“They have to remain quarantined in the hospital.
“If we were to allow voting to be conducted in the hospitals, it would need to be gazetted first as polling centres. So far, none of the hospitals have been gazetted as such,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham added that for persons under investigation (PUI) who were under a quarantine order, they would be allowed time off to go out and cast their votes.
“This is, however, only possible if they are quarantined near to where they are supposed to cast their votes.
“If it would involve a long journey such as a plane ride, it is not possible,” he said, adding that for Sabah, the ministry has stepped up screening of close contacts to Covid-19 patients.
Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry had also identified groups of people for targeted screening including elderly folk, patients of influenza-like illnesses and severe acute respiratory illness, undocumented migrants, hospital referrals, healthcare workers and enforcement officers.
“We have prepared beds for Covid-19 patients at Lahad Datu Hospital (251 beds), Tawau Hospital (401) and Kunak Hospital (40).
“Several training institutes and school hostels have also been assigned as quarantine centres for PUI in Tawau, Lahad Datu, Kunak and Semporna,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham also announced 82 new Covid-19 cases in the country, with 60 of them coming from Sabah alone and a new cluster in Semporna, dubbed the Bangau-Bangau Cluster, which has five cases linked to it.
The Benteng Lahad Datu (LD) cluster, the country’s biggest and active cluster, has 41 new cases which bring its cumulative total to 624.
There were also six new cases each from the Pulau cluster and Selamat cluster. The other two Sabah cases were detected from the community while other local cases include 10 in Kedah, one each in Selangor and Sarawak.
There are 10 import cases, including nine Malaysian medical students who have arrived from India.
A total of 168 patients have been discharged and no deaths -- which takes the total active cases in the country down to 665.