Dr Chin Zin Hing . – Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING (May 16): State Health director Dr Chin Zin Hing has given a stern warning that the B.1.617.1 Covid-19 variant is capable of paralysing Sarawak’s health services if the highly contagious double mutant strain from India enters the state.
“The first discovery of the Covid-19 mutation virus originating from India was reported in Malaysia on May 2 and if this variant enters Sarawak, it will be able to paralyse the health services in Sarawak quickly,” he said in a statement.
He said the intensive care units (ICUs) in government hospitals have reached a critical level with the state continuously registering more than 100 Covid-19 cases daily since Feb 13.
“The capacity of ICU beds in Sarawak is at a critical level especially at Sibu Hospital and Kapit Hospital.
“Furthermore, at present, only government hospitals in Sarawak can provide care services for critically ill patients due to Covid-19 infections,” he said, adding that there are currently 71 Covid-19 cases in critical condition at ICU wards including 26 patients who require respiratory assistance.
He also said that Covid-19 fatalities in Sarawak had shown an increase since February this year as well.
“In the past two weeks, the number of death cases due to Covid-19 were 27 cases a week,” he disclosed.
Dr Chin said the state’s R-value Covid-19 infectivity rate stood at 0.95 yesterday (May 15), a figure that is still high considering that the state’s daily Covid-19 cases are not decreasing.
R-value is an indication of how many people a Covid-19 positive individual can infect.
“Today alone, there are 405 new cases reported, bringing the cumulative Covid-19 positive cases in Sarawak to 38,383 while 81 clusters remain active throughout the state.
“This is a stark contrast to only 16 active clusters reported in mid-February this year,” he said.
He said most of these clusters had emerged due to mass gatherings during weddings, birthday parties as well as social activities such as gotong-royong that could have been avoided.
“In addition, there were also clusters which had stemmed from workplaces, funerals, longhouses and education institutions due to failure to comply with existing standard operating procedures (SOPs),” he said.
He stressed that there is no room for complacency in Sarawak’s fight against Covid-19.
“The State Health Department strongly supports the decision of the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to extend the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) period in Sarawak.
“Every Sarawakian is advised to continue abiding by the SOPs set by SDMC in our effort to curb the Covid-19 pandemic and protect the lives of all Sarawakians,” said Dr Chin.