By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Sept 5: Of the record-high 3,747 new Covid-19 cases in Sarawak today, 3,737 cases or 99.73 per cent are patients under Categories 1 and 2 with no or mild symptoms.
While there was a patient under Category 3 with lung infections, the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) also reported three patients in Category 4 with lung infections and requiring oxygen, and six in Category 5 who need ventilators.
Sarawak’s case total today has broken its previous benchmark of 2,992 cases on Sept 2.
It is also Sarawak’s first to breach the 3,000-mark in its Covid-19 history.
The sudden surge of cases from yesterday (Sept 4)’s 2,723 is due to the heightened amount of mass testing in several districts especially Kuching.
Other than the Covid-19 One-Stop Centre (COSC) at Padungan, five additional mass screening centres were recently set up in Kuching at the Kota Sentosa basketball court, SJK (C) Chung Hua in Batu Kawa, Braang Bayur Health Clinic, Jalan Masjid Health Clinic, and Tanah Puteh Health Clinic, to cater for more walk-in swab tests.
Based on current trends, experts expect the number of cases to rise in coming weeks before reaching a plateau.
On the breakdown of case numbers by district today, Kuching continues to lead with 1,311 cases, followed by Serian (397), Sibu (254), Betong (254), Samarahan (191), Mukah (151), Pusa (142), Bintulu (129), and Bau (123).
Other districts that saw double-digit case numbers were Sri Aman (82), Song (81), Asajaya (75), Tatau (75), Pakan (72), Miri (66), Saratok (50), Simunjan (49), Tebedu (40), Lundu (33), Lubok Antu (27), Kanowit (26), Dalat (25), Limbang (22), Sarikei (20), Subis (20), Selangau (17), Matu (14), Beluru (12), and Kapit (11).
The remaining districts with new infections are Belaga (7), Kabong (3), Julau (3), Lawas (2), Sebauh (2), and Meradong (1).
“Out of the 3,747 patients, 2,354 were detected following close contact screenings where 364 of them were symptomatic.
“Another 417 cases were individual screenings from active clusters where none of them showed signs and symptoms of Covid-19 infection.
“Adding on, 408 cases were detected via symptomatic screenings, 564 cases were from other screenings in health facilities, three were Import-A cases, and the remaining one was an Import-B case from Selangor,” said SDMC in its daily update on Covid-19 today.
As for the patient recovery rate, 1,769 patients were discharged from hospitals across Sarawak, with 29,993 active cases remaining in isolation or treatment. — DayakDaily
