KUCHING, June 18: Sarawak confirmed four new Covid-19 cases today involving two locals and two Indonesian workers who are yet to be found after going missing from their living quarters since yesterday evening.
The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) in a statement today, revealed that all the cases were detected following a health screening at a private hospital here.
This brings the total number of positive cases in Sarawak to 565 and 17 deaths.
For the cases involving locals, the first case involving a 33-year-old male working in a private event management company was discovered after he went for a health screening.
The second case involving a 71-year-old homemaker was detected after the patient took a Covid-19 test prior to an eye operation.
SDMC disclosed that contact tracing is ongoing and the cause of infection is still being investigated by the State Health Department for both cases.
For the cases involving the foreigners, SDMC revealed that both the Indonesian workers are from the construction sector and underwent Covid-19 screening tests as part of the requirements to apply for work permits.
“Unfortunately, both foreign workers had not been found as of press time after they went missing from their living quarters yesterday (June 17) evening.
“Contact tracing is ongoing and the cause of infection is still being investigated,” SDMC added.
Police are now on a manhunt for the two foreigners identified only as Darussalam and Hasanah.
SDMC thus advised employers to be on the alert and make police reports if they found two unknown workers from outside hiding on their premises.
“After several positive cases detected among foreign workers in past weeks, we have given advice to all employers to conduct Covid-19 screening tests for all workers especially foreign workers,” SDMC emphasised.
Meanwhile, no recoveries were recorded today and as such, the total number of recovered cases in Sarawak remains at 534 or 94.51 per cent of total positive cases so far.
As of today, 12 patients are still being treated in hospitals with none admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) or requiring respiratory support.
There are seven patients being treated in Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) and five patients in Bintulu Hospital.
Four districts in Sarawak are still labelled as Covid-19 yellow zones (zones with 40 or fewer Covid-19 cases) — Kuching, Samarahan, Simunjan and Bintulu.
The state also registered 48 person-under-investigation (PUI) cases today while eight cases are still awaiting laboratory test results.
There are also 28 persons-under-surveillance (PUS) who have been checked into identified hotels to undergo compulsory 14-day quarantines.
As of today, there are a total of 627 individuals undergoing quarantine in 12 hotels across Sarawak. — DayakDaily
