KOTA KINABALU – Complacency in adhering to standard operating procedures (SOPs) has been blamed for the surge in Covid-19 cases here.
Kota Kinabalu health officer Dr Suhaila Osman said the highly infectious Omicron was last month’s cause of the massive surge in cases in the district while Delta had been the catalyst for the surge in October until November last year.
“The reason why there was a surge in cases over these periods was because of the complacency of the community here.
“When the cases go down, the community is seen taking it easy on the SOPs. At one time, the number of cases in Kota Kinabalu hit over 1,000 cases per day,” she said during an integrated operation held around the city centre here today.
Daily cases due to Omicron started surging on February 4 with 909 cases, peaking on February 19 with 5,359 cases and dropping to 1,515 cases yesterday.
As the numbers skyrocketed, the health authorities had also been accumulating a backlog in test results, with some patients receiving their test results as “undetermined”.
However, Kota Kinabalu became the top contributor of new Covid-19 cases in the state.
Suhaila noted that the numbers are showing good downtrend movement at present and attributed intensified SOP enforcement and vaccination for this.
In the joint operation codenamed “Ops Opocot 3-in-1”, 14 compounds of various health-related offenses were issued by the Kota Kinabalu Health Office after checks were made on 1,500 individuals and 500 premises around the city centre here today.
Of that number, ten people were fined for failing to check in with their MySejahtera app and four others for smoking in food premises.
Close to 50 health enforcement officers, police officers, and Kota Kinabalu City Hall enforcement officers were involved in the operation today. – The Vibes, March 7, 2022
