Dr Rundi (centre) speaks at a press conference at Bintulu Resident Office yesterday.
BINTULU (Feb 7): Pasar Tamu Bintulu and Bintulu Night Market will be closed from today to enable the Ministry of Health to conduct active case detection on the traders in both areas to curb the spread of Covid-19 following the detection of a positive case related to the Pasar Tamu on Friday.
“We had to take this action and instructed the Health Department to carry out swab test for traders in the area.
“We hope traders at Pasar Tamu and those who might have connection to the night market here to take note and be prepared (with the closure and swab test) because the Bintulu Development Authority (BDA) already has a list of the registered traders,” said Minister of Utilities Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom
He said this in a press conference after chairing the current situation of Covid-19 meeting at Bintulu Resident Office yesterday.
He pointed out that Bintulu on Friday recorded 26 positive cases and four cases detected on Saturday involved those under quarantine, one import case C from Subis district Miri and one through individual screening and one infection from Pasar Tamu.
Dr Rundi who is a minister-in-charge for Bintulu Disaster Management Committee (BDMC) said this action had to be done because of the similar situation happening in other areas.
“When we act slowly, we might miss a lot of things that lead to problems. We try to get ahead of the virus. We see this situation (transmission) happening in other places like in Sibu, Kanowit and Song,” he added.
In the meantime, he thanked the frontliners involving the Sarawak Health Department, police and other parties especially in Sebauh who worked hard to curb and break the chain of Covid-19 infections.
“I hope they can share the best approach and action taken (to curb the outbreak) with other areas in Sarawak so that similar efforts can be made to fight the virus while waiting for the vaccine to arrive,” he said.
Also present at the press conference were Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, BDMC chairman cum Bintulu Resident Jack Aman Luat, Bintulu Division Health officer Dr Melvin Chung and Bintulu police chief Supt Zulkipli Suhaili.