KUCHING, Oct 7: One of the three new imported cases recorded in Sarawak today had failed to declare having visited Sabah in the past 14 days.
With one case each recorded in Kuching, Sri Aman and Bintulu respectively, the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) in a statement disclosed that the state’s tally of Covid-19 cases now stands at 724.
The good news is Kuching district reverted back to Covid-19 green zone status after no local transmission cases were recorded in the last 14 days.
Case 722 involved a civil servant who worked and stayed in Sri Aman. He was selected for random Covid-19 screening at Kuching International Airport (KIA) on Oct 3 upon arrival from Kuala Lumpur after a holiday in the capital city of Malaysia since Sept 25.
He was ordered to observe home quarantine and the test result returned positive on Oct 6.
The local man had been screened on Aug 24 at KIA upon returning from KL but the test result was negative. He had no travel history outside of the country or of visiting Sabah but often made return trips to Pahang via KL.
The case was asymptomatic and is now being isolated and treated at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
Case 723 involved a local man who returned to Kuching from KL, also on Oct 3. Upon arrival at KIA, he was also randomly screened and the rT-PCR test returned positive on Oct 6.
Based on information from the eHealth Declaration system, the case had travelled occasionally to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah and the last visit was on Sept 26 via Miri Airport. He was swabbed for Covid-19 upon arrival at Miri and the result was negative at that time.
However, upon returning from KL on Oct 3, the case had failed to declare that he had made a trip to Sabah in the last 14 days. He did not show any symptoms and is now being warded at SGH.
Case 724 involved an enforcement officer who worked in Tawau, Sabah. He arrived in Bintulu via Kota Kinabalu and proceeded to Miri on Sept 27. The case later continued his journey over land with his family from Miri Airport to Bintulu.
The local man was given welfare leave to meet with his family in Bintulu. Before returning to Sarawak, the case had undergone screening at a private laboratory in Tawau on Sept 24.
The test result was negative at that time and he was allowed to enter Sarawak. The case was swabbed on the 10th day on Oct 6 at Bintulu Health Clinic and the result was positive. The case was also asymptomatic and has been admitted to the Bintulu Hospital.
Further investigations and contact tracing are being actively carried out for all three cases.
Meanwhile, SDMC revealed that there was one recovery recorded today and the patient had been discharged from Bintulu Hospital today.
As such, the total number of recovered cases in Sarawak has increased to 684 or 94.48 per cent of total positive cases so far.
With three additional patients today, SDMC revealed that there are a total of 21 patients receiving treatment in hospitals in the state currently, with 11 in SGH, six in Miri Hospital, three in Sibu Hospital and one in Bintulu Hospital.
Sibu and Lawas maintained their status as Covid-19 yellow zones with Lawas having three local cases while Sibu recorded two local cases within the past 14 days.
Sarawak also recorded four more Persons-Under-Investigation (PUI) with one case pending laboratory test results.
There were also 110 more Persons-Under-Surveillance (PUS) checked into identified hotels to undergo quarantine.
As of today, there are a total number of 1,587 individuals undergoing quarantine in 15 hotels throughout the state. — DayakDaily
