Page 103 - MALAYSIA HEALTH SECTOR RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE FIELD

5.2: Responding to the Third COVID-19 Wave in Sabah and Sarawak

The overall health sector responses in Sabah and Sarawak are worth
mentioning. Various approaches taken by the respective state health
departments would have needed to consider their geographical factors. The
resurgence of the third COVID-19 wave, which hit with a greater magnitude,
especially in Sabah, required different approaches in their efforts to curb
the COVID-19 transmission and ensure the continuity of their healthcare
services, especially in the rural areas.

The magnitude of the third COVID-19 surge in Sabah was greater than the
first and second waves, progressing way beyond the state healthcare team's
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expectation, despite being prepared for it . The magnitude of COVID-19
spread among Sabah's community had exceeded that of the Sri Petaling
Tabligh Cluster or any of the other clusters reported previously. The drastic
rise of daily new COVID-19 cases and daily fatality rates in Sabah over a
short period of time had drained its healthcare capacity, putting its health
system at its maximum utilisation. There was an urgent need to take
immediate, aggressive measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 and
measures to ensure the continuity of the healthcare services in the state of
Sabah.
On the other hand, Sarawak was among the states least affected by the
third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, which befell Malaysia at the end of
the year 2020. The estimated effective reproduction number (Rt) value in
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Sarawak was only 0.4 on 27th November 2020 . Most of the Sarawak
districts remained as green zones as of 31st December 2020, with only
Kuching, Bintulu, Lawas, and Sibu being yellow zones (Figure 5.3). Their
success might be attributed to their approach of enforcing the mandatory
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14-day quarantine and COVID-19 testing for travellers arriving in Sarawak ,
which aimed to minimise the risk of community spread from the imported
cases from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah.

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