SANDAKAN – The Sandakan State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) are identifying several areas that may have contributed to the district’s rise in daily new Covid-19 cases, said its deputy chairman, ACP Mohd Azhar Hamin.
He said the Health Ministry and other related government departments and agencies would be carrying out targeted screenings in these places to further curb the spread of the virus.
“The Health Ministry is continuously carrying out studies to determine which areas are likely to impact daily Covid-19 numbers in Sandakan.
“If we find there are areas that are likely to contribute to the numbers, we will carry out public screenings there,” he told reporters after monitoring a public Covid-19 screening at Pulau Berhala near here today.
Pulau Berhala was declared a Covid-19 cluster on December 6, with cases detected as early as November 20.
Mohd Azhar, who is also the district police chief, said the committee would not be complacent in its efforts to break the chain of infection, despite seeing daily numbers dropping over the past several days.
He also appealed to Sandakan residents to overlook discomfort from being swabbed, as the free public screenings were important to breaking the chain of infection.
Sandakan has recorded double-digit daily new cases for the past 11 days, with the last time that figure reached triple-digits was on November 28 with 176.
The number of active cases has also dropped to triple-digits, with four-digits for active infections last recorded on December 2, with 1,052.
As of yesterday, Sandakan had 792 active cases, including 49 new cases. – Bernama, December 12, 2020
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