KUCHING, April 28: A 66-year-old man who contracted Covid-19 after visiting Pakan District is the index case for a new cluster after the virus spread to 24 other family members and residents of a longhouse at Kilometre 2, Jalan Pakan in Ulu Strass, Meradong.
Dubbed the Ulu Strass Cluster in Meradong, it is one of the two new clusters declared in Sarawak today. The other cluster was the Melugu Cluster in Sri Aman with 13 positive cases.
The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), in its daily update report on Covid-19 in Sarawak today, revealed that this community cluster involved the residents of a longhouse in Kilometre 2, Jalan Pakan in Ulu Strass, Meradong.
The index case or case 24,953 is a local man who was detected from symptomatic screening at Sarikei Hospital on April 16.
The case had started showing symptoms of cough on April 13 but only received treatment on April 16 when he began to experience breathing difficulty.
He was found to have been infected from the community while at Pakan District, before the virus spread among family members and residents of the longhouse due to close contact.
Further investigation and active case detection (ACD) operation on close contacts as well as targeted screening on longhouse residents found 24 more positive cases.
As of today, SDMC reported that 47 individuals have been screened whereby 22 were tested negative while no cases were pending test results.
All 25 positive cases have been referred to Sarikei Hospital and admitted to Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centre (PKRC) under the hospital for isolation and treatment.
With two new clusters, Sarawak now has 65 active clusters out of which eight clusters also recorded an increase in daily infections of 53 cases today.
The clusters are Jalan Roban Lama with 19 cases, Jalan Selirik and Duranda Emas (8 cases each), Sungai Kawi and Rayang (6 cases each), Tarat Tani (4 cases), while Disso and Jalan Disa has one case each. — DayakDaily
