KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government has decided to increase the number of congregants allowed to perform the Friday and five daily prayers at mosques and surau effective today.
State Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said priority will be given to congregation members who were fully vaccinated.
"The number of congregants allowed for Friday prayers at a main mosque at state or district-level is 300.
"For a 'Masjid Kariah' (the main mosque within a subdistrict or neighbourhood), the limit is 200 people, while only 50 people are allowed for Friday prayers at surau.
"Priority is given to those who were fully vaccinated," he said in a statement today.
He explained that examples of "main mosques" are the state mosque, Kota Kinabalu City Mosque, Nurul Hikmah Mosque in Bukit Padang, and all district mosques.
As for the five daily prayers, only 150 people were allowed to make up the congregation at any main mosque, while there must be only be a 50-member congregation limit for 'Masjid Kariah' and surau.
Masidi added that other activities allowed were "Kuliah Maghrib" and funeral prayers with the number of attendees the same as those allowed for Friday and daily prayers.
"Also allowed are funeral management and visiting of graves with a total of 20 people. For a marriage ceremony at the mosque or surau, the number allowed is 20 people subject to the size and permission of the respective mosque committee," he said.
Meanwhile, to avoid confusion on the issue of quarantine in Sabah, Masidi advised the people to refer to the latest standard operating procedure (SOP) for Phase 2 of the National Recovery Plan (PPN) for Sabah which was gazetted today.
Masidi said the quarantine issue when entering Sabah has been clearly explained in the said SOP.
"As for official matters that are exempted from quarantine, they are still subject to risk assessment by the Health Ministry when arriving in the state," he said.
Today, Sabah recorded 1,533 new Covid-19 cases with close contact screenings remaining the main contributor to the new cases at 55.69 per cent or 852 cases.
"This is followed by symptomatic screening at 30.9 per cent (473 cases), 135 cases from others and 73 cases from existing clusters," he said, adding that of the total caseload, 708 were backlogged cases.
Sabah also registered 22 fatalities – six in Sandakan, three in Keningau, two each in Kota Kinabalu, Kunak, Lahad Datu and Tawau, and one each in Beaufort, Kota Belud, Kota Marudu, Papar and Pitas.
Of the caseload, 553 of the total daily cases were fully vaccinated, 112 were partly vaccinated and 451 were not vaccinated while the rest were not eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine.
As of yesterday, Sabah's full vaccination rate among the adult population was at 55.2 per cent.