KOTA KINABALU: Local government and Housing Minister, Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun said barber and hair salons will remain closed during the Movement Control Order (MCO).
“It is not within the allowed activities,” he said.
He explained that this was because of the nature of the industry which required proximity between the hair stylist and their customer.
“So, we feel that it is too risky,” he said when asked if the industry would be allowed to open.
On another note, Masidi said that as of January 20, a total of 36 students were detected with the illness.
He said that the SPM and STPM students were detected with the virus during screening prior to returning to their hostels starting January 16.
He added that internet facilities are prepared at all quarantine centres and treatment centres for low risk Covid-19 treatment throughout the State to enable students undergoing quarantine to continue with their online learning.
Masidi, who was speaking at the daily Covid-19 media briefing which was held online also said that it is too early to gauge whether the MCO is effective in bringing the Covid-19 numbers down.
He reminded that Sabah was merely entering the eighth day of the MCO implementation and said that the true picture of the MCO’s efficacy would probably be revealed only after 14 days or two weeks.
“So, what we are seeing now are probably infections that occurred prior to the implementation of the MCO, which is contributed also by the lackadaisical compliance to the SOP,” he said.
Meanwhile, a total of 406 new Covid-19 cases were registered in Sabah today, bringing the cumulated number of cases in Sabah to 45,008 cases.
The highest number of cases are in Sandakan with 81 cases followed by Kota Kinabalu with 59 cases and Lahad Datu with 53 cases.
Other districts with cases are Tawau (51 cases), Penampang (21 cases), Kinabatangan (19 cases), Beaufort (16 cases), Tuaran (13 cases), Kota Belud (13 cases), Keningau (12 cases), Putatan (12 cases), Kalabakan (11 cases), Kunak (nine cases), Kota Marudu (eight cases), Papar (six cases), Tambunan (six cases), Nabawan (six cases), Kudat (four cases), Sipitang (two cases), Telupid (two cases) and Ranau and Tongod each registering one new case.
The state also registered three deaths today, whereby two occurred in Sandakan and one in Kota Kinabalu.
He also mentioned that another 416 Covid-19 patients recovered from the illness yesterday bringing the total number of people who have recovered to 40,549.
The number of people who continued being treated for the illness today was 2,926 people with 808 being treated at hospitals and 2,108 people being treated at PKRC, while 10 are being treated at Temporary Detention Centres or in prison.
“The number of patients being treated at Intensive Care wards are 84 people where 14 are on ventilation assistance,” he said in the daily Covid-19 briefing today.
Masidi also said that two new clusters were detected – Balibata cluster which involved three new cases in Beaufort and in Sandakan and the KKIP South cluster involving seven new cases in Kota Kinabalu.
He said that the Balibata cluster was detected during screening while returning from West Malaysia to Sabah on January 11 to attend a funeral and tahlil ceremomy at Kg Balibata in Beaufort.
The close contact screening detected 34 individuals positive for the virus including four family members from Sandakan.
As for the KKIP South cluster, he said that the cluster involved 14 cumulative cases.
About 65.02 percent or 264 of the new cases are the result of close contacts, he said.