RM300 aid for each tourism worker
Published on: Friday, October 30, 2020
By: Bernama
Kota Kinabalu: The State Government will channel a RM300 assistance each to tourism industry workers in the State to help ease their burden after their source of income is affected by the spread of Covid-19.Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Jafry Ariffin (pic) said the RM300 assistance would be channelled to 3,957 individuals, including mountain guides, porters, tour guides and dive masters.
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“The Sabah Government has approved an increase in the Covid-19 Prihatin Assistance allocation by RM160 million, and of that amount, the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment receives more than RM1 million,” he said.
Jafry said this in a meeting with the members of the Board of Directors of Sabah Parks (TTS), Mountain Guides Association and Porters Association, here, Thursday.
Among the matters discussed at the meeting were the welfare of TTS staff and efforts to upgrade the tourism infrastructure in Sabah to enable it to compete with the international tourism sector.
Jafry also called on all affected tourism sector activists following the spread of Covid-19 to remain resilient and, at the same time, improve all existing tourist attractions in preparation for future tourist arrivals.
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Meanwhile, for the first time in weeks, Sabah did not record any Covid-19 fatalities on Thursday.
The State reported 352 new positive cases as of noon Thursday, bringing the cumulative total to 14,053.
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State Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun, who is also Sabah’s Covid-19 spokesperson, said two new clusters were detected, namely the Sakti cluster in Lahad Datu with seven cases and the Tuguson cluster in Kota Belud with four cases.
The Sakti cluster stemmed from an oil mill whereas the Tuguson cluster stemmed from a duty hand-over ceremony.
Kota Kinabalu topped the list with 96 cases, followed by Tawau with 71 cases.
The Tongod district, which was the only green zone in Sabah, recorded one new positive case, which classified the district as a yellow zone. There are now no green zones in the State.
Masidi said 3,848 patients are currently receiving treatment. Of these, 730 are receiving treatment at the hospital and 3,118 at Low-Risk Covid-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRCs).
“There are 72 Covid-19 patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where 27 of them are in need of respiratory support,” he said.
He said 458 patients have recovered and been discharged, bringing the cumulative tally of recovered cases to 7,683.
Nationwide, a total of 685 Covid-19 recoveries were reported Thursday, higher than the 649 new cases recorded.
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 642 of the new cases were local transmissions while the other seven were imported from abroad.
He said 352 of the locally transmitted cases were reported in Sabah, followed by 132 in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan (43), Kedah (37), Kuala Lumpur (21), Labuan (17), Penang (13), Johor (10), Sarawak (eight), Perak (five), and one case each in Pahang, Melaka, Terengganu and Putrajaya.
“In Sabah, 55 cases are from clusters, including 11 cases from new clusters, namely the Sakti cluster and Tuguson cluster, 170 cases from screenings conducted on close contacts of positive Covid-19 cases and 127 cases were from other Covid-19 screenings.
“In Selangor, 70 cases are from clusters, including six cases from new clusters, namely Taman Laut cluster and Bah Medan cluster, 41 cases from screenings of close contacts of positive cases and 21 cases from other Covid-19 screenings,” he said in a statement, Thursday.
Dr Noor Hisham said Sabah and the Klang Valley which were still under the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) accounted for 78.7 per cent of the total number of Covid-19 positive cases overall.
Meanwhile, he said the import cases involved two citizens and five non-citizens who arrived from Indonesia, India and the Philippines.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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