KOTA KINABALU: Sabah's first and only known Covid-19 patient who was infected by the Omicron variant has recovered, says state Covid-19 spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun.

       "He has recovered from the infection and so far, that seems to be the only (Omicron) case identified (in Sabah)," he said when referring to the man who tested positive after returning to Tawau from umrah.

       However, he said they were still waiting for the Covid-19 screening result on the man's wife.

       Masidi said that the Sabah Health Department is continuously screening all cases closely and so far, the only case was the one in Tawau," he added.

       He did not rule out the possibility of Sabah imposing restrictions for those coming from the Labuan FT as Omicron cases on the island have increased.

       "In fact, I strongly feel that whatever our response will be, it should be based on science and medicine. We should not be too quick to panic. However, what is happening in Labuan must be taken as a lesson and regulations must be enforced effectively as we do not really know what is going to happen next.

       "From what we know of the Omicron strain, even though the physical effect is not as severe as Delta, its transmission rate is very fast, much faster than other variants," he said.

       To a question if there were any Sabahans in the group of recent 10 unvaccinated umrah returnees that had tested positive for Omicron in Kuala Lumpur, Masidi said the state government is still waiting for confirmation on that.