By Olivia Miwil - February 9, 2022 @ 12:15pm
KOTA KINABALU: The state Health department will be increasing its capacity and capabilities to address the surge of Covid-19 cases in the state.
Sabah Community Development and People's Wellbeing minister Datuk Shahelmey Yahya said that the state Health director Datuk Dr Rose Nani Mudin has assured that they will manage the situation accordingly.
"There are several hospitals with higher bed utilisation rates from early February.
"The same goes for Covid-19 Assessment Centres, including in Luyang, which had gone viral on social media for the long queue of people getting screened for Covid-19," he said after visiting the Covid-19 national immunisation programme for children aged between 5 and 11 (PICKids) at the Sabah Women and Children's hospital, here.
Present were hospital director Dr Marcus Netto and deputy director Dr Christine Lu.
Shahelmey, who is also state Health Exco and immunisation programme director, said the health department was coordinating its staff to effectively handle the surge.
Sabah saw a significant increase of Covid-19 cases from three digits to 2,069 cases yesterday.
He said about 99 per cent of the cases were in Categories 1 and 2 due to the vaccination efforts.
However, Shahelmey said the booster vaccination rate in Sabah was about 18 per cent and the response is lukewarm as it was previously not a prerequisite.
"People have to remember after two doses of the vaccine, the body defence system (against Covid-19) will decrease.
"Therefore, we need booster doses to get back the defence system especially with the Omicron wave to ensure we are protected from infection."
Whether Sabah will impose any restrictions on movement or social activities, Shahelmey said for now the cabinet has yet to come up with anything.
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