By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Feb 25: A new cluster dubbed Jalan Ho Pin has been declared in Samarahan District after 14 people tested positive for Covid-19 as a result of Chinese New Year (CNY) visiting between Feb 11 to 14.
Of the 14 cases including the index case, two were detected in Serian.
The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), in a statement today, revealed that the Jalan Ho Pin Cluster is a community cluster involving Samarahan, Serian and Kuching districts.
The infections were believed to have spread through visiting activities between Feb 11 to 14 during CNY at several relatives’ and friends’ houses in the three districts.
The index case was Case 7,636 who was a 22-year-old lady detected through symptomatic screening on Feb 18.
Further investigations and screenings on social contacts and index case’s workplace found 13 positive cases.
Up until today (Feb 25), a total of 120 individuals have been screened whereby 41 were negative while 65 were still awaiting lab test results.
All of the patients were now isolated and treated at Sarawak General Hospital and Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centre (PKRC) Kuching.
With the new cluster, this thus increased the number of active clusters in Sarawak to 26.
Meanwhile, Sarawak recorded two Covid-19 fatalities and 219 new cases today with Sibu topping the list of daily infections with 80 cases followed by Kapit (26), Bintulu (25), Kuching (18), Meradong (17), Miri (12), Samarahan (11), Serian (10), Selangau (8), Sri Aman (5), Saratok (3), and one each in Kanowit, Sarikei, Bukit Mabong and Betong.
This thus pushed the State tally of positive cases to 8,869 and death toll to 78. — DayakDaily
