KOTA KINABALU, April 29 — This year’s Kaamatan festival in Sabah will be held entirely online starting today, devoid of all revelries traditionally associated with the festival.

Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan said the decision was made to prevent the emergence of new Covid-19 clusters, which would put to waste efforts taken to combat the pandemic so far.

"The Sabah government has also decided that except for the launching of the Kaamatan month this Saturday which will be done symbolically at Hongkod Koisaan (KDCA), there will be no Kaamatan festival to be celebrated at district level,” he said in a statement here today.

Kitingan, who is also the chairman of this year’s Kaamatan main organising committee, said programmes such as the Unduk Ngadau contest, Sugandoi and other competitions at the district level will continue but other programmes such as the officiating ceremony will be omitted.

He said this is in response to the federal government’s recent decision to change Sabah’s status from recovery movement control order (RMCO) to conditional movement control order (CMCO) from today until May 17.

"We will continue to do live streaming and online broadcasting, but we will do so in accordance with the standard operating procedure set by the Health Ministry,” he added. — Bernama