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Sarawak denies manipulating Covid-19 daily cases to hold state election

KUCHING: Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas has denied social media postings that Sarawak is manipulating its daily Covid-19 cases, which are now on a downward trend, to hold the 12th state election.

He said the drop of Covid-19 cases in Sarawak was due to the vaccination rate; where 90.5 per cent of the eligible recipients completed two doses, which equals 75.5 per cent of the state's total population.

In addition, he said, some 634,684 people in Sarawak had also been given the Covid-19 booster jab.

"The Covid-19 cases are reported daily by the Health Ministry and the state government has no hand in this," he said, responding to some netizens who accused the state government of manipulating Covid-19 numbers to justify its decision to hold the 12th state election next month.

Uggah said this at the opening of the Agriculture Community Outreach Programme (AgriCOP) at Kampung Long Bemang community hall, Long Bemang in Baram, here today.

He said the infectivity rate or R-naught (Rt) in Sarawak stood at 0.87 yesterday which was the lowest in the country, thus, the state government was right in calling for the election to be held soon.

"The admission at hospitals for serious Covid-19 cases is also still low while the Health Ministry has reported 137 Covid-19 cases in Sarawak today compared to 144 yesterday," he added.

"We have always feared for the emergence of new variants, besides the monsoon season in the state is expected from January to February next year," he said.

Coincidentally, he said, the Health Ministry had reported the emergence of a new variant the B.1.1.529 or the Omicron coronavirus where 77 cases had been reported in South Africa, four in Botswana and two in Hong Kong.

He said the B.1.1.529 variant has 32 protein spike mutations and scientists worldwide are still trying to find out if this variant is more contagious than the Delta variant. The vaccine's efficacy is also undetermined.

"So, it is untrue that the government is manipulating the Covid-19 cases in Sarawak, instead the decision to call for the election now was to avoid a more contagious variant and the rainy season in the state," he explained.

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