By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Oct 18: Four siblings, aged between 7 and 13, are among the five positive cases of Covid-19 reported in Sarawak today.
The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), in a press statement today, said the four cases in Kuching were close contacts to index case 719 and also the children of case 730 and the index case.
The committee added the four cases were identified following the second Covid-19 swab test on the 10th day of the close contacts undergoing quarantine at a quarantine centre in which the results were positive on October 16.
Elaborating further, it disclosed that three of the children were female and one was male.
SDMC noted they were close contacts to index case 719 who had returned from Sabah on October 2 and was tested positive for Covid-19 on October 5 after being instructed to undergo home quarantine.
SDMC said the four new cases in Kuching were linked to the Bah Arnab cluster.
As for the Bah Arnab cluster, the committee said 12 cases were tested positive for Covid-19 including eight cases which were identified through the second Covid-19 swab test.
It added 28 individuals from the cluster were tested negative.
SDMC said there was also another positive case reported today which involved a private sector technician working in a government hospital in Kuching.
The committee said the technician experienced fever and flu on October 15 and underwent Covid-19 swab test at a government clinic.
SDMC said his Covid-19 swab test’s results were positive on October 17, adding that the patient was identified following symptomatic contact tracing activities.
The committee said the case has been classified as local transmission as the patient did not have a travel history to overseas or return from high risk areas.
It said the patient was admitted into the isolation ward of Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) for further medical treatment.
It said the source of the Covid-19 infection for the technician is still under investigation and contract tracing activities are being carried out.
With five new cases reported, SDMC said the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in Sarawak has increased to 768 cases.
The committee added that there was one Covid-19 patient who recovered and was discharged from Sibu Hospital.
With the additional recovery, the committee said a cumulative of 701 patients or 91.28 per cent of the total cases of Covid-19 in Sarawak have recovered from the virus.
It added that there were 48 active cases in Sarawak which were being treated at the isolation wards in hospitals.
SDMC said 32 cases were being treated at the isolation wards in SGH, eight cases in Miri Hospital, seven cases in Bintulu Hospital and one case in Sibu Hospital.
The committee said there were also 10 new cases of Persons-Under-Investigation (PUI) while two PUI cases were awaiting laboratory test results.
It added that there were 170 Persons-Under-Surveillance (PUS) who have registered into hotels to undergo quarantine.
SDMC said a total of 1,825 PUS are undergoing quarantine at 23 hotels throughout Sarawak and a total of 26,867 PUS have completed their quarantine today. —DayakDaily
