PRIME Minister Muhyiddin Yassin today blamed the spike in Covid-19 cases in Sabah on the entry of undocumented migrants.

He said all undocumented migrants detained will be screened and placed in temporary detention centres that are still available

However, he said Putrajaya will set up new centre in Sabah as the ones available are already full.

“In the meantime, we will increase the manpower of health workers to carry out the screening process on the undocumented migrants,” he said.

“National security personnel will also be added to control the country’s borders to curb their entry, especially in Sabah.

“Assets will be mobilised to prevent attempts to cross national borders,” Muhyiddin said in a Facebook post today. 

He had earlier chaired a National Security Council meeting in Putrajaya.

Malaysia’s alarming case spike has mostly been concentrated in Sabah and Kedah. 

“Most cases occurred among detainees in prisons, in areas under the targeted enhanced movement-control order, and from clusters that have already been identified and controlled.

“Those areas are being monitored at all times and detection of cases and close contacts are actively being done to ensure that positive cases can quickly be identified and isolated,” he said.

He also said the country’s level of readiness to cope with Covid-19 is at its highest.

“(As a result), we are able to cope with the Covid-19 transmission, as we have gone through before,” he said.

Muhyiddin called on the public to remain calm in the face of the current outbreak.

“I believe our country’s frontline team, especially the Health Ministry and the security forces have the capacity and expertise to deal with this situation well,” he said.

The country is seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases linked to Sabah ever since the state elections ended, where a number of people tested positive for the coronavirus.  

A few politicians have also tested positive for the virus since returning from Sabah. 

Malaysia yesterday recorded the highest single-day number of Covid-19 cases with 287 new infections. – October 3, 2020.