By Ling Hui
KUCHING, July 13: Bintulu remains a Covid-19 green zone although one new imported Covid-19 case was reported today, involving a 59-year-old Indonesian male who worked as a crew member for an oil tanker traveling from Singapore to Sabah.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas in his press release today revealed the male patient initially tested negative using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab tests at Japan Kansai Airport before he started sailing on June 23, 2020.
However, the male patient started experiencing diarrhea and dizziness after one month when his vessel entered the waters of Singapore, followed by shortness of breaths and headaches.
The patient (case 580)’s condition continued to worsen, so the ship’s captain sent an emergency message to their shipping agent at Bintulu Port and the patient was taken to Borneo Medical Centre (BMC) Bintulu on the night of July 11.
During his stay at Bintulu Hospital, he was already unconscious and was given aid via breathing apparatus. A Covid-19 rapid test PCR was carried out and returned positive yesterday.
With this, the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in Sarawak as of today is 580 cases, Uggah confirmed.
Meanwhile, a total of nine individuals are still receiving treatment in hospital isolation wards while one person is in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The number of recoveries overall remain at 552 or 95.17 per cent of total reported cases and no new deaths have surfaced.
Uggah also noted there was a total of 12 new Person-Under-Investigation (PUI) cases with two cases awaiting laboratory test results.
On a related issue, he revealed there were 128 Person-Under-Surveillance (PUS) who were checked into various hotels across Sarawak to be quarantined.
There is now a total of 515 individuals under quarantine in 10 hotels throughout Sarawak while 18,441 PUS have completed their 14-day quarantine. — DayakDaily
