SIBU, Jan 15: A lawmaker has called for more Covid-19 red zone areas in the state to be put under Movement Control Order (MCO) instead of only Sibu Division.
Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chang, in a statement today, said this is to prevent a major outbreak of Covd-19 including preventing the more infectious variant of the virus known as “UK B.1.1.7” from coming here.
Hence, she said, the State Disaster Management Committee (SMDC) should consider putting Kuching and Miri under MCO.
Citing the case of Sibu Division being put under MCO on Jan 14, she said the MCO was declared five days late since the 37 cases from the Pasai cluster exploded into the scene on Jan 9.
“Sibu was mostly under green and yellow zones since March 18. But in just five days from Jan 8, 462 cases have emerged from the Pasai cluster to all over Sarawak, including in Sri Aman, Sebauh, Miri, Dalat, Kanowit, Belaga, Kuching, Bintulu and Simunjan.
“This is an average of 92.4 new cases every day – just from this cluster.
“From the statement released by SDMC yesterday (Jan 14), 1,400 individuals from the cluster have been tested with 888 persons have been found negative whereas 50 individuals are still waiting for their result,” she said.
And since it is not known if the contact tracing from this cluster have been completed yet or not, Chang asserted that the extent of its true damage is therefore still unknown.
“If Sarawak is not under total lockdown for at least a short duration, it would therefore be just a matter of time before this variant of the virus will reach Sarawak, if not already here. Since this variant is known to be very infectious and can spread quickly and easily, its presence in the state would definitely break our buckling health system in no time,” she said.
MCO, she noted helps to stop the movement of people between all the divisions and districts
She also called for a mass swab testing in every town and district to gauge the spread of infection and systematic disinfection and fumigation in all public places and known locations where any infected persons had visited. — DayakDaily
