KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government tightened the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Hari Raya Aidil Adha celebration as the state's daily Covid-19 infections spiked to 647 cases today.
Sabah Covid-19 spokesperson Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said to curb the spread of Covid-19 transmission in the state, the government has decided not to allow open houses, feasts, and visiting of graves during Aidil Adha.
"The Aidil Adha special prayers (solat sunat Aidiladha), however, will be allowed at mosques and surau, but with a capacity of one-third of the area, or maximum 30 congregation members, whichever is lower.
"The number of people for 'korban' duties has also been reduced to 15 people only. No other activities are allowed to be held in the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) areas.
"This SOP amendment is temporary and will also be based on the Covid-19 situation," he said in his daily statement.
Masidi also reminded the people especially in Kota Kinabalu, Tawau, Kudat, Keningau, Sandakan, Sipitang and Beaufort to comply with the inter-district travel ban.
He also reiterated the importance of observing SOP and encouraged the public to stay home and limit their movements as much as possible, as the trend of cases was highly dependent on the people's SOP compliance.
Masidi said today's 647 new cases were detected from close contact tracings with 220 cases, 287 cases from the clusters, 47 from symptomatic screenings, 63 from targeted screenings and 30 from other categories.
"Kota Kinabalu continues to record the highest infections with most of them coming from the prison in Kepayan. Of the 312 Covid-19 cases in the city, the existing Tembok Kota Kinabalu cluster contributed 65.4 per cent or 204 cases," he said adding the state's cumulative tally was now 74,479 cases.
Masidi added one fatality recorded in Lahad Datu and a new cluster recorded in Keningau, dubbed the Jambatan Liawan cluster.
"This cluster involved infections among the community in Mukim Tuarid Taud and Lingkudau, Keningau.
"The index case was a 26-year-old man who tested positive for Covid-19 after undergoing symptomatic screening on July 14 at a private clinic in Keningau. Out of 256 contacts screenings, 48 were found positive.
"The infection was suspected to have been linked to a social activity among teenagers in a village, and then spread to family members," he said adding investigation and close contact tracing were still being carried out.
Tambunan and Tenom remained as Covid-19 green zone districts in Sabah, while there are 15 red zones, five orange zones and five yellow zones.