By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Aug 19: With speculation rife of another possible lockdown amidst rising Covid-19 cases in Sarawak, the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) clarified today that the topic to impose a lockdown was never brought up in the agenda of today’s meeting.
SDMC emphasised that the daily meeting involving statewide committees, authorities and agencies at 11am this morning was to review the measures taken to curb the spread of Covid-19 cases in the Southern Zone areas.
However, it is still unclear if additional measures or restrictions may be imposed once more to control the numerous outbreaks in the Southern Zone, which has seen a surge in cases of late, with record breaking numbers in the past week.
The Southern Zone, which includes the districts of Kuching, Lundu, Bau, Serian, Tebedu, Samarahan, Asajaya and Simunjan is currently still in Phase 2 of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) with tighter restrictions, while the rest of Sarawak have entered Phase 3 which saw restrictions being eased.
The speculation of another impending lockdown came as the daily Covid-19 caseload in the Southern Zone saw an uptick recently with Covid-19 cases fluctuating between 700 and 1,400.
Yesterday, Sarawak recorded 1,403 cases as Kuching and neighbouring districts like Serian, Samarahan and Bau continued to top the list of new cases with triple-digit increases.
Just three days ago, Sarawak saw a new record high for daily infections with 1,566 cases.
As of yesterday, the State tally of positive cases has swelled to 90,810. — DayakDaily
