KOTA KINABALU: The trend of high daily Covid-19 cases registered in Sabah is expected to continue for a while as delayed data comes in from districts that may not have given test result input faster, says Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun.
The Sabah Covid-19 spokesman, who said earlier the more than 2,000 daily Covid-19 cases over the last few days was due to a backlog, added that state Health Department frontliners also had their hands full.
“It may take some time, as they are overstretched.
“Data is also coming from outstation, which may not be factored on the same day the results are known,” Masidi said when asked how long the authorities think the backlog will affect the daily numbers.
Sabah recorded 2,638 cases on Sunday (Aug 22), with the figure not varying by much from the previous day’s 2,651 infections reported, said Masidi, who is also state Local Government and Housing Minister.
“As we have said previously, the cases confirmed daily are not those that only happened within the last 24 hours.
“Some 14% (369 cases) are a backlog of cases from more than five days back, 14.3% (378 cases) are those (around) four days and 33.8% (892 cases) are those over two days.
“Today (Sunday), Kota Kinabalu figures rose to 883 cases, higher than 669 yesterday, while Penampang saw a drop to 210 from 406 cases previously,” he added.
A new cluster dubbed Kampung Penangah in Tongod was reported, with 36 cumulative infections so far.
Masidi said as of Saturday (Aug 21), 51.7% of the targeted adult population in Sabah had received their first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while 29.3% have completed both doses.
When asked if the state government had revised the vaccination rate target or was maintaining it, he replied: “We hope to maintain over 50,000 jabs daily and most important of all, vaccines are readily available.”
The last vaccination rate revision by Masidi was on Aug 11, where the authorities projected to get 60% of the targeted population vaccinated by Sept 21, while aspiring to reach herd immunity as early as Oct 31.