KUCHING, Feb 11: Practice good personal hygiene, especially washing hands often, to help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus which has killed 1,013 people to date since its outbreak in Wuhan, China in December.
In giving this advice, PKR Sarawak vice chairman Voon Shiak Ni emphasised that everyone need to play their role in helping to prevent the spread of the virus globally.
“It is learnt that the virus can spread from person to person. We touch a lot of things in our daily activities and we don’t know if the surface, in which viruses can survive, might have been contaminated with droplets from coughing and sneezing.
“So always practice good hygiene in order to limit the transmissions of all viruses,” she said in a statement today.
Noting that Sarawak was still free from any confirmed cases to date, Voon called on all Sarawakians to play a role in preventing the virus from getting into Sarawak.
She also supported the State Disaster Management Committee’s decision to require anyone who had been to Singapore recently to undergo immediate self-imposed 14-day home quarantine.
The decision took effect on Monday (Feb 10) in view of Singapore’s orange alert on the novel coronavirus outbreak.
According to the island republic’s Disease Outbreak Response System Condition (Dorscon), orange means the outbreak is deemed to have moderate to high public health impact.
“Singapore has 45 confirmed cases, out of which 23 cases are locally transmitted infections with three clusters having been identified. It demonstrates that the virus has spread via social gatherings and public places.
“So for those who have travelled to high risk areas, do observe self-quarantine to ensure you are free from the infection and not to spread the virus to others. This is a social duty,” she added.
Voon also agreed that people should use alternative ways to exchange greetings instead of shaking hands for the time being.
“There is no need to panic but we all need to be more disciplined especially in practicing good personal hygiene and cleanliness to stay safe and stay clear from the virus,” she reminded.
She commended the extraordinary efforts by China to tackle the outbreak including locking down cities and forcing millions of its people to undergo quarantine to curb the global spread of the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, from Jan 10 to Feb 9, there had been 60 Patient Under Investigation (PUI) cases recorded in Sarawak with 43 tested negative while 17 were pending.
Out of the total, 15 cases involving Malaysians were recorded at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), eight at Sibu Hospital, seven in Miri and four in Bintulu.
For those affecting Chinese nationals, four were recorded at SGH, two in Sibu and two in Bintulu. The sole case involving a Thai national was recorded at SGH.
For the 17 pending cases, 11 involved Malaysians, five Chinese and one from Thailand. —DayakDaily
