By Karen Bong
KUCHING, May 6: Eight out of the 11 new Covid-19 cases recorded in Sarawak today are linked to the healthcare workers cluster.
State Health director Dr Chin Zin Hing informed that one of the eight healthcare workers infected with Covid-19 was from the Samarahan Health Division Office while the rest were from Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
“This is the result of mass screening for all clinical staff from SGH in order to detect all the cases.
“From our findings, a lot of the cases in SGH are asymptomatic. So we need to do this mass screening so that we can pick up all the cases for us to stop the transmission,” he told a daily press conference on Covid-19 today.
With screening covering almost all SGH staff, Dr Chin was hopeful to break the chain of transmission in the healthcare workers cluster.
“The positive cases are being treated while contact tracing has also been done,” he added.
Meanwhile, State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas informed that of total positive cases today, seven were from Kuching and two each from Samarahan and Tebedu.
This brought the total number of positive cases in the state to 536 since the first case was detected on March 13.
“A total of 185 patients are being treated in hospitals throughout the state with two patients in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and one requiring respiratory support.
“There are 26 recoveries with 25 patients from SGH and one patient from Bintulu Hospital had been discharged,” he said.
From overall cases, 62.31 per cent of Covid-19 patients have recovered and returned home.
Uggah updated that Sarawak also recorded 113 more person-under-investigation (PUI) cases today with 18 cases are still awaiting laboratory test results.
“There are 63 more Sarawakians returning to the state have been checked in to identified hotels as PUI to undergo compulsory 14-days quarantine, while eight individuals have completed the procedure and allowed to go home,” he added. —DayakDaily
