By Brad Rantayy
MIRI, 8 Jan: Minister in charge for the Miri Division Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) cum Minister for Transport, Datuk Lee Kim Shin, has received public enquiries on the Bah Sayap Cluster in Miri.
“In view of this, on behalf of the Miri Division Disaster Management Committee (DDMC), I would like to explain the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) whenever there is a positive COVID-19 case detected.
“The Health Department will immediately perform Case Investigation and Contact Tracing which is a key strategy for preventing further spread of COVID-19,” Lee said in a statement today.
Case investigation and contact tracing is a specialized skill performed by trained Public Health Inspectors and Public Health Doctors.
They work closely with a patient to help them recall everyone with whom they have had close contact especially during the infectious period and could transmit the disease.
Through this process, family or household, workplace and social close contacts are identified, quarantined at respective homes and arranged swab for RT-PCR COVID-19 test in accordance with the Ministry of Health Malaysia protocols.
Close contacts are generally defined as persons who had contact with a confirmed case with or without wearing a mask, then one-meter distance and more than 15 minutes of duration.
In the event there are airline passenger contacts, the passengers seated two-rows in front and back plus the adjacent rows will be identified, quarantined at respective homes and arranged for swab test and RT-PCR COVID-19 test.
The passenger details are obtained from the flight passenger manifest given by the respective airlines to the Health Department.
The Health Department will also perform Active Case Detections (ACDs) in view of the local COVID-19 cases that were detected in Miri.
ACD refers to Health Department reaching out to the community and systematically screen the population to find cases.
Targeted screening method will be employed focusing around the neighbourhood and workplace areas of a reported positive case.
All these strategies outlined above are being employed concurrently and still on-going since Bah Sayap Cluster was detected in Miri District.
To date, a total 216 individuals have been performed swab for RT-PCR COVID-19 test with 153 reported as negative and 63 results are pending.
Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has recently released the premises that positive case had visited.
All the commercial premises in accordance with the Ministry of Local Government and Housing (MLGH) SOP are required to perform daily sanitation/cleaning of their premises as part of their daily operating procedure.
Moreover, customers in the premise are required to adopt COVID-19 preventive measures such as wearing a 3-ply mask, ensuring social distancing and practice self-hygiene.
Hence with these preventive measures in place, the risk of COVID-19 transmission will below.
The strategy to release the name of the premises and their exact date and specific time was done to empower the general public to perform self-assessment and remind them continuously to practice COVID-19 preventive measures.
The general public can check in their respective telephone using the MySejahtera app under the ‘History’ option to cross-reference the premises they visited and verify whether it matched to the list of premises, exact date and specific time published.
In the event, any individual was present at the said premises after checking in their MySejahtera app and there were lapses in the COVID-19 preventive measures (i.e. did not wear a 3-ply mask, did not practise social distancing and did not practise self-hygiene), the said person can go to Miri Indoor Stadium between 8:30 am to 11:30 am (Monday-Sunday) and report to Health Inspector stationed there.
The Health Inspector will verify the information by checking the individual’s MySejahtera app and perform interviews to assess their exposure risk.
If the exposure risk is found to be significant, swab for RT-PCR COVID-19 will be taken at the Miri Indoor Stadium. If the premises, their exact date and specific time do not match or if the exposure risk is deemed as low, the person will be advised to monitor the symptoms and practice COVID-19 preventive measures such as wearing a 3-ply mask, ensuring social distancing and practice self-hygiene.
Miri DDMC would like to remind the public to be vigilant and continue practice avoidance of 3C (Crowded, Confined & Close Conversation) and adopt 3W (Wash, Wear & Warn) strategies as advocated by Ministry of Health Malaysia. -DayakDaily
