By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Oct 29: A two-year-old toddler – the youngest to be infected by Covid-19 in Sarawak – is among 10 new cases recorded in Kuching today.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas informed that with the new cases, this thus increased the state tally of positive cases to 856.
Linked to the Greenhill cluster, the toddler and a 58-year-old individual were the close contacts to Case 818. They were asymptomatic.
“Another two social contacts linked to this cluster are aged 20 and 26 years old. Both cases have had fever and cough.
“All cases were detected following screening at a government health facility on Oct 27,” he told a press conference on Covid-19 situation in Sarawak here today.
The Deputy Chief Minister also reported that a local female beautician, who worked at a beauty salon in Galacity here, was detected through the Active Case Detection operation conducted by State Health Department on Oct 26.
“She has been having flu and sore throat since Oct 21 but no travel history to high-risked area or in contact with positive cases.
“Investigations are ongoing to determine the cause of infection. Contact tracing is also underway,” he added.
Baki Cluster recorded three new cases today involving the family members to Case 768 and 775, who are aged between 12 to 20 years old.
“All cases are in the quarantine centre when detected. They underwent screening on Oct 18 and the results were negative. They took second tests on Oct 27 and the results returned positive,” he revealed.
There were also two imported cases involving an Indonesian patient and a patient escort from West Kalimantan who entered with valid medical tourism permit to receive treatment at a private hospital in Kuching.
Uggah explained that the cases’ first test were negative but their second test returned positive.
All ten patients are isolated and receiving treatment at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
Meanwhile, there were five active clusters in Sarawak as of today (Oct 29) namely Bah Arnab Cluster in Kuching whereby seven of the 12 cases have recovered, Putra Cluster in Bintulu (all five cases recovered), Baki Cluster in Kuching (28 cases), Seladah Cluster in Kuching (seven cases) and Greenhill Cluster in Kuching (29 cases).
There were five cases who have been discharged from hospitals today with four from SGH and one from Miri Hospital.
Thus, the total number of recovered cases in Sarawak have been increased to 743 or 86.80 per cent of total positive cases so far.
A total of 84 patients are receiving treatment in hospitals in the state currently with 87 in SGH, four in Miri Hospital, two in Sibu Hospital and one in Bintulu Hospital.
Kuching remained as the Covid-19 red zone with total 77 local transmission cases recorded within the past 14 days.
Sarawak also recorded 19 more persons-under-investigation (PUI) with four cases pending laboratory test results.
There were also 209 more persons-under-surveillance (PUS) registered into identified hotels to undergo quarantine.
As of today, there were a total number of 2,153 individuals undergoing quarantine in 24 hotels throughout the state. —DayakDaily
