Dr Sim Kui Hian
KUCHING (Feb 25): Housing and Local Government Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian is concerned that gatherings during Chap Goh Mei tomorrow could contribute to a surge in Covid-19 cases after the state’s daily number of cases reached a record high of 353 yesterday.
He revealed that contact tracing in the past two weeks had indicated that social gatherings at food and beverage outlets and private residences in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebration from Feb 12 had contributed to the large number of cases here and in Samarahan.
“The last day of CNY, Chap Goh Mei will be another hot bed event for Covid-19 tranmission to occur,” he said in a Facebook post last night, explaining that this based on the observations of the Sarawak General Hospital’s Covid-19 Response team over the two-week period.
Pointing out that every ethnic group was at risk, Dr Sim said positive cases have frequently been found in ‘sociocultural’ events associated with large gatherings.
He also dismissed the public belief that only people who were unwell should be worried about Covid-19 and dismissed the possibility that they could have contracted the virus even though they have been identified as a close contact to a positive case.
The implication of this misbelief, he said, was that those infected would expose family members and friends who were at risk of developing severe symptoms.
On the symptoms, Dr Sim said an isolated transient alteration in smell or taste or both was enough to raise Covid-19 alarm bells.
“We have seen some who had already recovered from these symptoms by the time they were tracked down by contact tracers. They only admitted to have had such symptoms after they were traced through a positive case friend or relative.
“Indeed these individuals were the most likely source of infection of their positive case friend/family member,” he said.
Dr Sim urged the public not to go to work if they felt unwell, adding that employers should be encouraged to allow their workers to be absent from work but at the same time, make sure they went to be tested for the virus.
He also said the public should help contact tracers locate people who were at risk of being infected.
“Let’s help contact tracers to trace your friends/relatives at risk. Helping doctors or health inspectors in contact tracing is how a positive case or PUI (person under investigation) could help their friends, family members escape serious covid19 and death.
“Early identification, early diagnosis, early treatment. Let’s trace together,” he said.
More than half of Sarawak’s 353 Covid-19 cases yesterday were recorded in Sibu at 181, bringing the state’s tally of cases to 8,650.
Also as of yesterday, the state’s Covid-19 death toll stood at 76.