KUCHING, Oct 20: An Indonesian woman with a valid permit to escort a cancer patient to seek treatment at a private hospital here was the sole new imported Covid-19 case confirmed in Sarawak today.
Sibu has also regained its Covid-19 green zone status following zero local transmission cases being detected in the district over the past 14 days.
With one new case in Kuching, the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) in a statement today, said this thus raised the state tally of positive cases to 769.
Case 769 arrived from West Kalimantan, Indonesia with a permit under Medical Tourism.
The case and a patient entered Sarawak via land route through Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security (ICQS) Tebedu in Serian on Oct 19. They were picked up and managed by staff from the private hospital.
The two were also screened for Covid-19 and placed under mandatory quarantine at a hospital while the patient received treatment.
The test conducted by a private laboratory in Kuching found the woman to be positive for Covid-19 on the same day. The cancer patient however tested negative.
The case was asymptomatic and is currently being isolated and treated at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
Meanwhile, SDMC reported that two cases have been discharged from SGH today, and thus the total number of recovered cases in Sarawak has increased to 705 or 91.68 per cent of total positive cases so far.
Forty-five patients are receiving treatment in hospitals in the state currently with 31 in SGH, seven in Miri Hospital and seven in Bintulu Hospital.
There are two clusters still active in Sarawak namely the Bah Arnab Cluster in Kuching with 12 cases and Putra Cluster in Bintulu with six cases including the index case.
In the Bah Arnab Cluster, eight of the 12 positive cases were identified via 10th day screening while 28 individuals had tested negative as of 12pm today.
There were no new cases reported in the Putra Cluster, with one of the six positive cases registered in Selangor.
A total of 183 contacts have tested negative to date, including all 79 individuals screened for the second time on the 10th day.
Three districts namely Kuching, Bintulu and Lubok Antu maintained their status as Covid-19 yellow zones with total of 21 local transmission cases recorded over the past 14 days.
Sarawak also recorded 24 more Persons-Under-Investigation (PUI) with four cases pending laboratory test results.
There were also 142 more Persons-Under-Surveillance (PUS) registered into identified hotels to undergo quarantine.
As of today, there were a total of 1,677 individuals undergoing quarantine in 22 hotels throughout the state. — DayakDaily
