Public transport drivers, passengers in Sabah must be fully vaccinated effective Sept 16

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government today updated the standard operating procedures (SOP) of Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan for individuals who have completed the COVID-19 vaccination involving the transportation, recreational and creative industry sectors.

Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun said all drivers and public transport personnel such as stage buses and school buses, taxi and e-hailing must be fully vaccinated effective Sept 16.

"All passengers too must be fully vaccinated and display low COVID-19 risk status on the MySejahtera application.

"Stage and school buses are allowed with 50 per cent passengers while taxis and e-hailing are allowed a maximum two passengers including the driver.

"All public transportation services involving the same district are from 5 am to 10 pm with physical distancing in the vehicles and wearing of face masks," he said in a statement tonight.

He said driving schools were allowed to operate via appointments with driving tests allowed from September 17.

"All workers, teaching manpower and test candidates must already be fully vaccinated while the handling companies are only allowed to operate with a workers' capacity of 80 per cent," he said.

Masidi said those who were fully vaccinated were also allowed to conduct water recreational activities such as swimming, kayaking, scuba diving, snorkelling, sea walking, jet skiing and others individually on the condition that they observed physical distancing.

He said broadcasting via recordings or direct telecasts in the form of information delivery and entertainment were allowed in the presence of fully vaccinated audience with the audience capacity at 30 per cent of the studio space of agencies and broadcasting companies only.

He said creative industry filming inside and outside the studio, busking outside or inside premises and also performances at hotel lounges were allowed for those who had full vaccinations.

"As of Sept 9, a total of 49.5 per cent of the adult population in Sabah have completed their COVID-19 vaccination and 65.8 per cent more have obtained one dose of the vaccine," he said.

Masidi said Sabah today recorded 2,246 positive COVID-19 cases bringing the cumulative number to 169,983 cases, adding that another 3,059 recovered cases were reported today.

-- BERNAMA