KOTA KINABALU: Some of causes behind critical Covid-19 cases in Sabah are patients opting for traditional medicine such as herbs and showing apparent lack of urgency for treatment at the hospitals.
State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said most of the cases detected also involved those who did not receive the vaccine, especially the elderly.
He said many of them also admitted that they were not aware of being infected with Covid-19, apart from taking self-medication from traditional village medicine like herbs when showing symptoms.
"Many death cases involve senior citizens in Sabah, with half of them are Brought in Dead (BID) cases due to lack of initial treatment.
"They are only taken to hospital when their condition worsen or they die. At home, they use traditional medicine for treatment because they believe in the plant roots.
"When the roots are not working and the conditions deteriorate, then only they go to the hospital," he said at a press conference after his ministry's Covid-19 immunisation programme here.
Masidi, who is also the spokesperson for the daily development of COVID-19 Sabah, said this when asked to comment on the reasons behind many deaths from Covid-19 involving senior citizens in the state.
Based on statistics, 23 deaths were recorded over two weeks (until yesterday) with the highest number reported being yesterday with 18 deaths.
Most of the deaths involved the unvaccinated and those aged 60 years and above being BID cases. Yesterday alone, 10 of the 18 deaths reported were BID cases.
Masidi said there were also those who believed that they could manage the situation on their own at home and did not go to the hospital for early treatment.
Meanwhile, Masidi said Sabah needed to coordinate standard operating procedures (SOP) related to the opening of the country's borders from April 1 based on the situation in the state.
However, he said the coordination could only be done after the Federal government issued a general SOP for the whole country to identify aspects that needed to be given attention.
"The case in Sabah is quite challenging because we are facing the influx of people coming from the Philippines and Indonesia via boats and the vaccination rate in their home countries are not as high ours.
"We need to coordinate the SOP, such as requiring those entering Sabah to be fully vaccinated, including those who use boats," he said.