KOTA KINABALU: A total of 1,066,798 people have benefitted from the state government's RM160 million Covid-19 fund.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said, as of yesterday, a sum of RM34.86 million from the fund in the form of food baskets had been channelled to 169,345 people at Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) areas, on home quarantine and those listed under eKasih, which is a national database of households categorised as poor.
"There is also a one-off cash assistance for those working in agriculture; tourism; transportation; business; those who fall under the B40 category; orphans; people with disabilities; single mothers; taxi, lorry and bus drivers; and, university students.
"From October to December 2020, the government will exempt the rental fee for stalls and People's Housing Projects for three months," he said, adding that the traders fee for next year would also be excluded.
Hajiji was responding to questions from Calvin Chong Ket Kiun (DAP-Elopura) and several other assemblymen during the question-and-answer session at the state assembly sitting on total funds allocated by the state and federal governments for Sabah for the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the state received RM50 million from the federal government through the National Disaster Management Agency on Oct 26.
"The RM50 million is meant for assistance in paying the accommodation, food and transportation for frontliners, purchase of personal protection equipment for all agencies except the Health Ministry and necessities at Covid-19 quarantine and low-risk centres.
"The federal government has also assisted Sabah people in the form of cash aid through the Bantuan Sara Hidup programme (BSH 2020) and Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN 1.0), " he said.
There are 406,000 recipients of BSH 2020 involving RM474 million while 905,000 benefited from the BPN 1.0 to the tune of RM983 million.
Meanwhile, on Covid-19 screening, Hajiji said 542,523 Covid-19 tests using RT-PCR and RTK Antigen had been conducted between Feb 1 and Nov 15.
He said Sabah recorded a total of 23,095 Covid-19 cases to date with infectivity rate below 1.0.
"The Sabah government has yet to build another hospital to accommodate Covid-19 patients as there are now 11 hospitals that are treating infected patients from Stage 3 to 5.
"For stages 1 and 2 Covid-19 cases, there are 35 quarantine and low risks treatment centres."