KOTA KINABALU: The public must continue observing the standard operating procedures (SOP) even as Sabah transitions into Phase Three of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) beginning Monday.
Sabah Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said non-compliance of the SOP will cause the number of sporadic infections in Sabah to rise further.
"Sabah's Covid-19 new cases are trending downwards but sporadic cases are increasing, almost 39 per cent of the caseload.
"Sporadic cases usually occur due to non-compliance of SOP. It can happen with socialising and being in a public area.
"It is feared that Sabah's transition to Phase Three which allows for more social and economic activities will increase sporadic infections," he said in a statement.
However, Masidi believed the people would continue to follow the SOP currently enforced to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
"The lifting of the inter-district travel ban and Sabah's transition to Phase 3 actually places the responsibility on the shoulders of the people to be the frontliners in our fight against Covid-19."
Today, Sabah recorded 639 new infections. However, only 350 positive cases were recorded in the past 24 hours while the remaining were detected from backlogged cases.
Masidi also advised the public to get their Covid-19 vaccination as it is proven in the data that those who have been vaccinated have higher immunity against the virus.
"The effectiveness of the vaccine can be seen from the categories of patients reported daily.
"Those who have been fully vaccinated have higher immunity against the virus, and even if infected, they would only be either in Category 1(asymptomatic) or Category 2 (mild symptoms such as cough, fever, or flu).
"Today there are only two patients in Category 5 and five in Category 4. Patients in these two categories are those who need intensive care. These patients might have other health conditions or have yet to be vaccinated.
"Some 546 patients or 85.5 per cent are in Category 2 and 56 or 8.8 per cent in Category 1," he said adding that only three patients are in Category 3.
According to Masidi's daily statement, the cumulative number of people in Sabah's population who have been vaccinated with one dose as of Oct 15 is 2,405,622, and this involves 2,091,648 or 75.8 per cent of its adult population.
Within the population, 2,170,704 people have been vaccinated. This figure includes 1,980,802 or 71.8 per cent of the adult population.
"A total of 313,974 or 73.7 per cent of teenagers have received their first dose of the vaccine, while 189,902 or 45.0 per cent have been fully vaccinated," he said.
Sabah also registered 12 deaths – three each in Sandakan and Semporna and one each in Beaufort, Kota Kinabalu, Kota Marudu, Pitas, Tambunan and Tuaran.