Jalan Roban Lama Cluster is one of two new school-based clusters in Sarawak today

Covid-19

By Ling Hui

KUCHING, April 23: Yet another educational institution in Sarawak is down after a new Covid-19 cluster surfaced today, involving a group of Form Six students at Jalan Roban Lama, Saratok which has been named the Jalan Roban Lama Cluster.

The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) said this cluster was detected through a targeted screening done by the Betong Division Health Office on April 18 where initially 40 of the students and school staff were found reactive to the Antigen Rapid Test Kits (RTK).

“Repeated screening results using the rT-PCR (rapid test polymerase chain reaction) tests then found 13 of them positive for Covid-19 on April 22.

“The cause of infection leading to this cluster was from the community which then spread to the college through close contact with the school community,” it said in a statement today.

A total of 294 individuals have been screened where 48 have since tested positive for the virus, while 241 returned negative results and another five cases are awaiting laboratory test results.

SDMC assured that all 48 cases who tested positive for Covid-19 have been admitted to the Saratok Hospital and Quarantine and Treatment Centres for Covid-19 (PKRC) for isolation and treatment purposes.

The Jalan Roban Lama Cluster was only one among two new clusters reported today. The other one was the Jalan Selirik Cluster involving a secondary school in Kapit.

This brings the number of active clusters in Sarawak to 56. — DayakDaily