KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 — Khairy Jamaluddin is scheduled to visit Tawau and Semporna tomorrow after visiting the Sabah state capital of Kota Kinabalu today, amid soaring Covid-19 cases in the state.
The health minister will be meeting Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor and join a Sabah Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) meeting this morning, before a work visit to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu and the nearby Papar Hospital this afternoon.
According to Khairy’s Sabah itinerary as sighted by CodeBlue, the health minister will then fly to Tawau tomorrow morning and subsequently go to Semporna, where he will take a look at Covid-19 vaccination outreach activities on an island off Semporna.
Then, tomorrow afternoon, Khairy is scheduled to make a working visit to Tawau Hospital and a field hospital before flying back to Kuala Lumpur.
Sabah, the most poorly vaccinated state at about 43 per cent of its adult population fully inoculated against Covid-19 as of September 4, has been recording more than 2,000 daily coronavirus infections and fatalities in the double digits since August 17.
Out of the 251 Covid-19 deaths recorded in the state the past seven days, 116 victims, or 46 per cent, were brought in dead before receiving medical treatment.
In the past 14 days from August 22 to September 4, Kota Kinabalu reported the highest number of Covid-19 cases at 7,698 infections, followed by Sandakan (3,830), Papar (2,630), and Tawau (2,416). Semporna reported the lowest case figures at 120 infections.
As of August 31, based on official data sighted by CodeBlue, Covid-19 vaccine coverage in Sabah varied widely with much higher vaccination rates in the west coast than the east coast. Full inoculation rates ranged from 90 per cent of the adult population in Beaufort to just about 18 per cent in Kinabatangan.
In Semporna, about 34 per cent of its adult population has received complete Covid-19 vaccination as of August 31.
