By Ling Hui
KUCHING, July 17: Kuching, Samarahan and Bintulu became yellow zones today after the emergence of 10 new Covid-19 cases.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas revealed that Kuching (6), Samarahan (2) and Bintulu (2) raised the number of Covid-19 cases in the state to 594 cases.
Kuching and Samarahan reported two imported cases each involving local students returning from Australia. They tested positive only on the 10th day of their self-quarantine at home.
Uggah also reported a locally-transmitted new case in Kuching to be the colleague of Case 582 reported on July 15 who was working at a private hospital.
Meanwhile, another female senior citizen from Kuching was tested positive of Covid-19 yesterday when she was admitted to Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
The female patient was a severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) case and had diabetes and hypertension.
Two more positive cases from Kuching were self-tested at private hospitals although they showed no symptoms.
For the two cases in Bintulu, they were classified as import cases as both the Covid-19 patients came in close contact with Case 580 reported on July 13 who worked as a crew member for the LNG Jupiter oil tanker travelling from Singapore to Sabah.
Meanwhile, a total of 22 individuals are still receiving treatment in the hospital isolation wards while the number of fatalities remains at 18.
The number of recoveries maintains at 554 or 93.27 per cent of total reported cases and no new deaths surfaced today.
Uggah also stated that a total of 23 new person-under-investigation (PUI) cases and two cases still awaiting laboratory test results.
On a related issue, he said there were 43 person-under-surveillance (PUS) who were registered into various hotels across Sarawak to be quarantined.
He pointed out that there was now a total of 449 individuals under quarantine in eight hotels throughout Sarawak while 18,783 PUS have completed their 14-day quarantine.—DayakDaily
