Sabah to follow suit in nationwide total lockdown

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah, which is currently under the conditional movement control order (CMCO), will follow the rest of the country and go into total lockdown from Tuesday.

Due to the differing levels of movement restrictions between Sabah and the peninsula, social media has been littered with questions from Sabahans on whether the state would go along with the latest MCO announced by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) earlier tonight.

State local government and housing minister Masidi Manjun confirmed that Sabah would comply with the full lockdown order.

“The PMO has announced a national total lockdown, it’s applicable nationwide,” he told FMT.

Asked whether the state needed to discuss with the National Security Council (MKN) before following the MCO, he said: “Looking at the statistics and the escalating trend in daily Covid-19 cases in our own state, I don’t think we have much options.”

Sabah detected 308 cases in the past 24 hours, which is the first time the state has registered over 300 new infections in a single day since Jan 26.

The PMO earlier tonight issued a statement announcing a total nationwide lockdown, similar to the first MCO, which will come into effect from June 1 to June 14.

It said the government had decided on the total lockdown amid the worsening Covid-19 situation with a record 8,290 infections reported today.

Under the total lockdown, only the essential economic and services sectors are allowed to operate.

On May 10, Masidi had said that Sabah’s more relaxed restrictions on movements would remain despite the announcement of an initial nationwide MCO from May 12 to June 7.

The CMCO was already in force in the state at that time.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had announced then that an MCO would be imposed nationwide, but that specific measures being implemented in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan would continue. FMT