One of the Bomba personnel during the disinfection works at Stutong Community Market. – File photo
KUCHING: The Stutong Cluster has officially ended today after no new Covid-19 cases were reported within 28 days from the date the last case was reported, said the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC).
It said in a statement that the cluster was first detected when the State Health Department conducted an active screening at Stutong Market based on the results of investigation which found that there were sporadic cases which had a history of visiting the market.
“On July 16, the State Health Department conducted random screening activities on traders in the market. A total of 56 people were selected for Covid-19 screening using the rTPCR test method.
“As a result of the initial screening on July 18, the State Health Department detected two positive Covid-19 cases of Covid-19 out of the 56 people screened which led to the Stutong Market Cluster being declared,” it said, adding that on the same day, the Stutong Market was also ordered to close for 14 days for the disinfection and to break the chain of Covid-19 infection.
The committee said following the market’s closure, all traders and close contacts to the positive Covid-19 cases from the market were instructed to undergo Covid-19 screening and to be quarantined at home.
It said the screening activity from July 19 to 21 successfully screened a total of 629 people who were swabbed at the Petra Jaya Health Clinic and from here, five more confirmed positive cases were detected.
“Overall, a total of 685 people comprising all traders at Stutong Market as well as close contact to the cases have been identified.
“The screening results have successfully detected a total of seven Covid-19 cases with the last case detected on July 22,” it said, adding that the last case has recovered and was discharged from the hospital on July 31.
The committee also said of the seven cases detected, only one showed early signs and symptoms of Covid-19 infection and that no cases were admitted to the intensive care unit nor deaths were reported from this cluster.
It added that the Stutong Market has since been given the green light to operate as usual in compliance with the market’s standard operating procedure on Aug 1.
SDMC said with the end of this cluster, the state’s remaining Covid-19 active clusters now stood at seven namely the Engineering Company Cluster which has eight cases; Mambong Cluster (7); Sentosa Cluster (31); Melbourne PUI Cluster (3); Kuching Construction Company Cluster (2); Satok Market Cluster (4); and the latest cluster dubbed Alam Cluster (4).
Meanwhile, SDMC said a Covid-19 patient has recovered and was allowed to be discharged from Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) today.
“This brings the total number of recoveries to 661 which accounts for 96.36 per cent out of the overall cases,” it added.
It also said six people were still receiving treatment at isolation wards and the death toll in Sarawak remains unchanged at 19 or 2.77 per cent of the total cases.
On the number of person under investigation (PUI), the committee said 17 new cases were recorded today while four cases were pending lab test results.