Covid 19 Fear Factor Back In Sabah As Infections Surge

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A business association says there have been fewer cars on the road, with many streetside parking bays vacant. (Bernama pic)KOTA KINABALU: The fear of Covid-19 has returned to Sabah with businesses and daily lives affected after the state registered thousands of daily infections over the past week.
After months of relatively low caseloads, the Covid-19 numbers suddenly surged to 1,205 on Feb 5 and continued climbing by the day before peaking on Wednesday at 3,333.
While the cases went down slightly on Thursday, it still remained above the 2,000 mark at 2,969 before increasing by 392 cases to 3,361 on Friday.
The surge has become a worry for Sabahans like Rolly Jistin who was planning to get engaged in northern Kudat district today. Rolly said the ceremony, already restricted with the current SOPs, might be even smaller as some of his family members had contracted the virus.
“It’s unlikely I will postpone the engagement as preparations were made over a month ago, but at the same time, I’m also worried about what will happen if we go through with it.
“In any case, I hope no one else in the family will be infected because it’s like almost every day you hear people you know getting the virus now,” he told FMT.
The soaring infections have also hurt businesses. Brandon Young, who runs a thriving Mexican restaurant in the heart of the city, said sales have dropped significantly as people were unwilling to go out.
“I had a full house at dinner time last Sunday, but it went down abruptly by 50% the following day and by 70% the next day. We haven’t had a full house since the cases increased, sometimes only two or three tables are filled.
“I believe this is most likely due to people being afraid to go out. Nowadays, people look at the number of cases rather than the SOPs in deciding to spend time outside.”
Young said the high number of infections have also affected other businesses nearby, with some eateries forced to shut temporarily due to staff members being forced into quarantine as close contacts.
Sabah local government and housing minister Masidi Manjun had previously said the sudden surge could likely be due to the highly-transmissible Omicron variant, although the health department has yet to ascertain this.
Sabah Small and Medium Enterprise Association president Foo Ngee Kee said there have been fewer cars on the road with many street side parking lots vacant, indicating that more people were staying indoors.
Foo was concerned the government could be pushed into imposing another lockdown if the cases soared even higher, but hoped this would not happen.
“Masidi had said before that lockdowns will not be a preference as there are livelihoods to protect. About 99% of the active cases are also in Category 1 and 2 which do not need hospitalisation.”
While Sabah Employers Association president Yap Cheen Boon was not worried about lockdowns since the mortality rate was low, he believed targeted enhanced movement control order (EMCO) measures would definitely make a return.
He said this would still cause disruptions to businesses, adding that the problem faced by businesses now was not fewer customers but lower purchasing power, exacerbated by rapid rising costs of raw materials and other supply costs.
“So naturally the populist measure to undertake is to increase minimum wage, whilst knowing full well that it will just stoke inflationary pressure continuously upwards to no end.
“In short, it is an acknowledgment that the government’s hands are tied in the face of external inflationary input and the internal weak domestic market. For us businesses in Sabah, it means tougher challenges with no end in sight.” - FMT

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