M’sia Just Had the 2nd Largest Daily COVID-19 Spike This Year & It’s the ‘Beginning of a New Wave’

Just as we thought, hey, maybe things will get better soon and we’ll be able to flock into Malaysia once again for cheap food and shopping, and to see our relatives of course, the universe said no.

260 New Cases Reported 

Malaysia’s COVID-19 cases have spiked again, with 260 new cases being reported on 1 Oct.

This is the second-highest daily number in Malaysia since the pandemic began.

The huge rise in the number of cases comes after many travelled to and from Sabah for the recent state elections, bringing the national tally to 11,484 cases and a total of 136 deaths.

On 4 June, Malaysia reported a total of 277 cases for the day, the highest daily spike to date. However, the majority of the cases were detected amongst foreigners from the Bukit Jalil Immigration Detention Depot, with only four locally transmitted cases.

Previously on 26 March, during the beginning of Malaysia’s movement control order (MCO), 235 cases had been reported, with 208 of them being local transmissions while the remaining 27 were imported cases.

The Start Of A New Wave

Of the 260 new cases reported yesterday, all were locally transmitted, save for one who had been an imported case from the United Kingdom who is currently in Kuala Lumpur. Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah reported that 130 of the cases were Malaysians, while 120 were foreigners.

Saying that this could be the “beginning of a new wave”, Dr Noor Hisham urged for the public to keep to safe distancing measures and unless necessary, not to leave their homes as much as possible.

“It is up to us now to flatten the curve. We have done it before and we can do it again,” he added.

31 of the locally transmitted cases in this batch had travelled to and from Sabah, which brings the tally of Sabah travel-related cases to 119 since 20 Sep.

It should also be noted that Sabah isn’t in West Malaysia, the Malaysia we’re more familiar with; Sabah is in East Malaysia, whereby one would have to take a plane to reach there.

Dr Noor Hisham also said that Sabah had the highest number of locally transmitted cases with 118 cases, followed by Kedah with 98 cases, as well as both Selangor and Kuala Lumpur with 13 cases each.

Johor, Putrajaya, Terengganu, Perlis, Melaka, Pahang and Penang were also among the states that COVID-19 cases had been detected in.

Four new clusters have also been reported, namely the Jalan Meru Cluster in Selangor, the Joo Hwa Cluster in Sabah, the Selasih Cluster in Putrajaya and the Bah Ketil Cluster in Kedah.

While campaigning in Sabah, two politicians had also tested positive for the virus, and other cases involving travels to and from Sabah were reported in all 13 Malaysian states this week alone.

In Penang, a teacher who had returned from a Sabah political trail along with her politician husband caused 600 school students to have to undergo testing. The number of cases that sparked from the Sabah state elections has also naturally led to the public criticising the government.

In response to this, Dr Noor Hisham said that the attempt to control the COVID-19 situation in Sabah would be made more possible with the new inter-district travel restrictions from 3 Oct to 16 Oct. A targeted enhanced movement control order (TEMCO) has also been implemented in four districts.

He added that the Ministry of Health and other related agencies would be employing every effort to control the spread of the virus, and asked for everyone’s cooperation.

Stricter Measures For Sarawak

Following the increase in transmissions in Sabah and Malaysia in general, stricter travel measures will be implemented, said the Sarawak authorities on 1 Oct.

Sarawak is also located in East Malaysia.

Between 4 and 18 Oct, Malaysians and non-citizens in Sabah as well as the federal territory of Labuan will not be allowed to enter Sarawak. For Sarawakians returning to the state from the aforementioned areas, an online application and health declaration is required. However, they will still have to be tested for the virus and undergo a 14-day quarantine.

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