The change, the third in two days, was announced by state local government and housing minister Masidi Manjun. Yesterday he had announced streamlined business hours from 9am to 5pm, then amended an hour later to 9am to 6pm.

Trading hours for markets, however, remained at 6am-3pm, while operating hours of business premises allowed in a shopping complex are according to the complex, which is from 9am to 7pm.

In his latest statement today, Masidi, who is the state’s spokesperson for Covid-19, said the amendments to the operating hours of the business and services sector were made after taking note of feedback from various parties.

The hours for petrol stations are 6am-8pm while the hours for banking and financial institutions are 8.30am to 5.30pm.

Professional firms and all professional services are allowed to operate from 9am to 5pm.

Masidi said the number of Covid-19 cases in Sabah recorded an increase of 31 cases from 305 cases yesterday, to 336 cases today.

Of the new cases today, 140 were the result of close contact screening, 117 cases were from cluster screening, 31 cases were from symptomatic screening, 32 cases were from targeted screening and 16 cases were from other categories.