Covid-19: 4 new positive cases in Sarawak today — 3 imported, 1 local transmission

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File photo for illustration purposes.

KUCHING (Oct 15): Sarawak recorded four new Covid-19 cases today, with three in Kuching and one in Miri, bringing the total number of positive cases in the state to 759.

Three of these have been classified as imported cases, with one local transmission, said Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas at a press conference today.

“Case 756 and 757 are Indonesians from West Indonesia who entered Sarawak on Oct 12 and underwent medical and Covid-19 screening at a private hospital as a requirement before starting work. They were found to have entered the state illegally and did not undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine like other visitors from overseas,” said Uggah.

He added that they went for the Covid-19 screening on Oct 14 and tested positive for the virus on the same day.

Both were asymptomatic and admitted to the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) for treatment. Further investigation and contact tracing are being carried out.

The third case, Case 759, is a close contact to Case 752 and was detected by contact tracing by the Samarahan Health Office and Kuching Health Office. The person is a close family member who lives in Kuching and had visited Case 752 while the latter was undergoing home quarantine in Samarahan district, he said.

He added Case 759 went for a rT-PCR Covid-19 test on Oct 13 at a government health clinic and tested positive for the virus on Oct 14. The case was asymptomatic and admitted to the SGH for treatment.

For the imported case in Miri, Case 758 is a local male who has travel history from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah who stopped over in Labuan before flying to Miri on Oct 10.

The individual is an off-shore Sabah Liquefied natural gas (LNG) worker who was on the ship from Sept 3 and signed-off on Oct 10.

Upon arrival, he underwent the mandatory 14-day quarantine and had his first Covid-19 screening on Oct 13 which came back positive on Oct 14, and he was admitted to Miri Hospital for further treatment. He had a sore throat on Oct 8.

Contact tracing is currently being carried out for this case.

No new clusters were detected today, and two clusters remain active in the state — the ‘Bah Arnab’ Cluster in Kuching and Putra Cluster in Bintulu.

The ‘Bah Arnab’ cluster has four positive cases, and as of noon today, 40 people were screened with 36 negatives and none awaiting test results. The Putra Cluster has no new positive cases, and has six positive cases including the index case, he said.

He added for the Putra Cluster, six tested positive and one positive case was found and recorded in Selangor.

Meanwhile, three Covid-19 patients were allowed to be discharged today, with two from Miri Hospital and one from Sibu Hospital, thus bringing the total number of recoveries in the state to 694 or 91.44 per cent of the overall cases.

“There are 46 patients currently being treated and isolated at hospitals throughout the state, of which 28 are treated at SGH, eight at Miri Hospital, seven at Bintulu Hospital and three at Sibu Hospital,” he said.

On the number of persons-under-investigation (PUI), five new cases were reported today and three are still awaiting test results. There are no new deaths or new patients in the ICU today, with the death toll remaining unchanged at 19 people.