Covid-19: Sarawak’s streak of imported cases continues today with one new positive case

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KUCHING (Aug 9): Sarawak’s streak of imported Covid-19 cases continues on its third day today with one new positive Covid-19 case recorded in Kuching district.

The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) said this brings the total number of positive cases in the state to 681.

It said the latest case involved a Malaysian man who is a student studying at Dar Al-Mustafa, Yemen.

“The case returned from Cairo, Egypt to Kuala Lumpur via Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Aug 1 onboard Egypt Air.

“He was on transit at KLIA before returning to Sarawak via Kuching International Airport (KIA) on Aug 2,” it said in a statement today.

The committee pointed out that upon arrival at KIA, the case was taken directly to the hotel quarantine centre to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

“He underwent Covid-19 screening using the Rapid Test Kit (RTK) Antigen on Aug 2 upon his arrival in Kuala Lumpur and the rest results turned up negative.

“During the quarantine in Kuching, a swab for rT-PCR test for the first screening was taken on Aug 3 and the lab test result on Aug 6 also came back negative.

“However, on Aug 8, the case had undergone a second screening of the rT-PCR test on the tenth day of quarantine and the lab test result from the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) Lab on the same day found that the case was positive for Covid-19,” it said, adding that the case was immediately admitted to SGH that day for further treatment.

It also said the case is a close contact and classmate of Case 679 at Dar Al-Mustafa, Yemen who was  confirmed positive for Covid-19 on Aug 7.

“The patient is asymptomatic and contract tracing and further investigation is being carried out at the moment,” it added.

SDMC said the state still has ten Covid-19 clusters which remain active namely the Engineering Company Cluster which still has eight cases; Mambong Cluster (7); Medical Centre Cluster (3); Jupiter Cluster (3); Stutong Market Cluster (7); Kuching Jetty Cluster (2); Sentosa Cluster (31); Melbourne PUI Cluster (3); Kuching Construction Company Cluster (2); and Satok Market Cluster (4).

On the number of person under investigation (PUI), SDMC said six new cases were recorded today while one case is still pending lab test results.

“Currently, ten cases are still being treated at hospitals throughout the state,” it said.

It also said eight cases had recovered and were allowed to be discharged from SGH today.

“Out of the total, seven were from Kuching district and one was from Lundu district.

“This brings the total number of recoveries to 652 which accounts for 95.74 per cent out of the overall cases,” it added.

Since the first positive Covid-19 case was reported on March 13, the state has recorded a total of 19 deaths.