By Ling Hui
KUCHING, May 21: The Kenyalang Park Cluster that was declared yesterday (May 20) to have infected four families with at least 27 confirmed Covid-19 cases was first detected in a food court of a wet market last week.
This was disclosed by State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian when he said that particular wet market had been closed twice with three-day periods each time since the emergence of the cluster.
Understanding that the Ministry of Health (MoH) was trying to avoid stigma by not naming the index case or any specific shops, coffee shops, restaurants, entertainment outlets or recreational centres in clusters, he questioned whether public interest should come first before individual privacy.
He said this is especially vital when there are now many denials on the grounds where people repeatedly claim that they are being victimised because their related economic sectors “have no clusters” as cluster names are not always describing the root cause of the cluster.
“Let the people be the judge – to name the places rather than being misled by others who keep on claiming there are no clusters related to their economic sectors.
“It’s tough and hard for everyone’s livelihoods, but most importantly it’s to keep everyone of us alive now,” he said in a social media post yesterday (May 20).
Dr Sim, who is also Minister for Local Government and Housing, pointed out that the number of Covid-19 cases in Kuching Zone inclusive of Kuching, Samarahan and Serian Divisions, reportedly altogether 106 cases yesterday, has been increasing.
He said adding on that the Kuching Divisional Health Department (PBK Kuching) reported 78 cases as of 12 midnight and it was definitely an increasing trend over the last few days.
Of the 78, he said there were five Import-C cases from other districts namely Samarahan and Simunjan, 11 cases who walked-in for symptomatic tests, four pre-test swabs and 58 cases who were close contacts of existing Covid-19 patients.
“Let’s be on our highest alert and vigilance. Let’s do our part and play our role in these few critical weeks to buy time for vaccines to arrive in substantial doses for us to scale up vaccination,” said Dr Sim. — DayakDaily
