KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is unlikely to lift its inter-district travel ban for now, even for those who have received two Covid-19 vaccine doses, due to the high number of cases and low vaccination rates, said the state national security council.

       Its director Sitti Saleha Habib Yussof said the relevant agencies, including the state government, Sabah Health Department and state disaster management committee would consider the number of daily cases and various other factors before lifting the ban.

       “For now, this is not part of our discussions or consideration,” she said.

       Only 47.3% of eligible adults in Sabah have received their first dose, while 23.6% of the population had received the second dose as of Tuesday.

       Sitti said the possibility of the ban being lifted would only take effect when 80% of Sabah’s eligible population had been inoculated and the daily Covid-19 cases saw a drastic reduction over a continuous period of time.

       She explained that transmission of the virus was still possible to and from fully vaccinated individuals, although the risk of them suffering severe symptoms was much lower.

       “Due to the low vaccination rate in Sabah, the risk of the non-vaccinated getting infected and suffering severe effects is still high.

       “This is among the main reasons lifting the inter-district travel ban is not being considered,” she said.

       She also urged the public to get vaccinated to enable the state to achieve herd immunity.

       Earlier last week, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor explained the state government’s decision to maintain the inter-district travel restriction due to the continuing spike in new cases.

       He said despite efforts by the authorities to impose an enhanced movement control order in affected localities, the numbers continued to rise.

       Sabah has been seeing a breach of up to 2,000 cases over the past few weeks. The state recorded a total of 1,728 new daily cases on Tuesday.