By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, April 7: A birthday celebration organised in Meradong has ignited a new cluster of Covid-19 in the district known as the Sungai Kawi Cluster.
According to State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian in a Facebook post today, the Sungai Kawi Cluster was caused by a social gathering; in particular from a birthday celebration.
“Meradong has overtaken Bintulu and Sibu as it recorded the highest number of cases among the divisions today.
“127 positive cases were detected on first polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab of contact tracing.
“Another 97 exposed, waiting for results,” he said in a Facebook post today.
Dr Sim, who is also the Minister for Local Government and Housing noted that there was an increasing trend of Covid-19 clusters related at the workplace reported in Sarawak and not just in Peninsular Malaysia.
He recalled that earlier on, there were Covid-19 clusters emerging from longhouses, villages and now workplaces.
Dr Sim said the trend of Covid-19 infections has gone from urban areas to rural areas, and now back to urban areas.
He observed that because of the people adhering to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) of Covid-19 in the past, Sarawak was the best in the country recording low cases of Covid-19 until January 2021.
Suddenly, three months after that, Sarawak has become the fifth worst in the country in terms of Covid-19 infections.
Hence, he reminded the people to continue to follow the SOPs.
“We need everyone to play our part and play our role. We have to do it together.
“There is only so much enforcement, compound, advice, policy…the government can do.
“By the time a cluster emerges, we will be 14 days behind,” he added.
Earlier today, SDMC in a press statement said Meradong reported 121 new cases of Covid-19, the highest number of daily infections among all the districts in Sarawak.
It added there was one new cluster of Covid-19 formed with 119 cases from the Sungai Kawi cluster. — DayakDaily
