Mitigating a Covid-19 spike during the Sabah state election

A Sept 13, 2020, photo of a party worker putting up flags for the Sabah state election. Sabahans must remember to stick to the SOP when voting tomorrow (Sept 26) if the state is to have any chance of stopping the number of Covid-19 cases from rising further. — ZULAZHAR SHEBLEE/The Star

After what appeared to be initial success in containing Covid-19 infections in Malaysia, the number of new daily cases began climbing back into the three-digit range in early September 2020.

This can be seen in Sabah, especially on Sept 11, 2020, the day before the many political parties participating in the state election tomorrow (Sept 26, 2020) put in their nominations. On that day, Sabah recorded the highest infection rate from the Benteng Lahad Datu cluster with confirmed cases reaching 300 – the highest jump in more than three months.