KUCHING (Oct 31): Sarawak recorded nine new Covid-19 cases today, bringing the total number of positive cases in the state to 881.
According to the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) in its daily Covid-19 update, six of the cases are in Kuching District, two in Miri District and one in Samarahan District.
The committee said five of the new Kuching cases were from the Green Hill Cluster.
Two of them involved staff working at one of the premises patronised by one of the positive cases from the cluster. Both staff showed fever symptoms.
Two other cases from this cluster are social contacts, who have a history of meeting several positive cases from this cluster.
One case is a close contact to Case 855 who was reported positive for Covid-19 on Oct 29. This case was asymptomatic.
SDMC added that all of these cases underwent screening between Oct 29 and Oct 30, and their positive results were out on Oct 30.
Another Kuching case is of a local man who had close contact with Case 847 found positive on Oct 29. He underwent the rT-PCR test on Oct 29 and his result returned positive on Oct 30. He showed no symptoms.
SDMC said the Health Department is currently carrying out contact tracing of this case.
Meanwhile, of the two cases in Miri, one was traced back to the Green Hill cluster in Kucing. SDMC said this case involved a businessman who was a social contact to case 829 who was found positive for Covid-19 on Oct 28.
The businessman was in Kuching since mid September, and returned to Miri on Oct 26 via car.
He underwent screening on Oct 27 at a private hospital in Miri while displaying coughing symptoms, and his results returned positive on Oct 28. He has been admitted to the Miri Hospital for further treatment, and was categorised as Import C case for being infected in another district.
The second Miri case involved a local man who showed severe acute respiratory infections (SARI). He was tested on Oct 30 and returned positive results on the same day.
SDMC said the case has no history of travelling to high risk areas or been in contact with any positive cases.
Until the source of his infection has been identified, the committee said, he will be classified as a local case. The Health Department is continuing its investigation and contact tracing for this case, the SDMC added.
One case in Samarahan District involved a man with a travel history to Melaka. SDMC said the man, who worked in Kota Samarahan, arrived at the Kuching International Airport (KIA) on Oct 28 and was immediately swab tested before being directed to undergo 14 days quarantine.
The test result of the case returned positive on Oct 30. He was asymptomatic and has been admitted to the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) for further treatment.
SDMC said the Health Department is carrying out contact tracing of the case, and the case has been categorised as Import B case for being imported from a high risk area.
On another update, 114 active cases are being treated in hospitals across the state today, with 97 in the SGH, 2 in Sibu Hospital, 1 Bintulu Hospital and 14 Miri Hospital.
SDMC also recorded 14 new person-under-investigation (PUI) cases, with one still waiting for lab test results.
On that note, the committee also recorded 65 new person-under-surveillance (PUS) cases in the state today, making it a total of 2,327 cases being quarantined in 24 hotels across the state.
The death toll in Sarawak remains at 19.