Prison staff in Sri Aman and their family members among 385 new Covid-19 cases in Sarawak, 1 new cluster in Sibu

By Adrian Lim

KUCHING, April 6: Four prison staff in Sri Aman prison as well as two of their family members and 122 detainees were among the 128 individuals who tested positive for Covid-19, from a total of 385 new cases in Sarawak today.

State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas revealed that Sri Aman reported the highest number of new Covid-19 cases with 129, with most of them from the Tembok Cluster in Sri Aman prison.

With the whole of Sarawak registering 385 cases of coronavirus today, the tally of Covid-19 cases in the state has increased to 18,164.

“128 cases out of the 385 cases are from the Sri Aman Prison which is the Tembok Cluster in Sri Aman.

“There were four imported cases which involved returnees from China and Papua New Guinea.

“There is also a Covid-19 cluster, called the Jalan Maju Cluster in Sibu, which was identified by the State Health Department today.

“There are 40 active clusters of Covid-19 and out of that, nine clusters reported new cases.

“The balance of 31 clusters did not report new cases,” he said during a press conference on the latest situation of Covid-19 in Sarawak at the Old State Legislative building here today.

Uggah who is also Deputy Chief Minister said the Covid-19 situation in Asajaya, Sri Aman, Saratok and Sebauh has worsened.

He noted that Asajaya has turned into a yellow zone of Covid-19 after reporting five new cases of local infection.

He added Sri Aman has turned into a red zone of Covid-19 after reported 47 cases of local transmission in the past 14 days.

Uggah who is also Second Finance Minister said the Saratok and Sebauh districts each reported 23 cases and 24 cases respectively moving both districts into the orange zone of Covid-19.

In the meantime, other districts which reported new cases were Sibu (81), Bintulu (52), Miri (45), Kuching (22), Saratok (13), Lubok Antu (10), Marudi (6), Samarahan (5), Beluru (5), Asajaya (5), Pakan (3), Sebauh (2), Mukah (2), Limbang (2), Sarikei (1), Bukit Mabong (1) and Kanowit (1).

There were 228 Covid-19 patients who recovered and discharged from hospitals, bringing the total number of recoveries in Sarawak to 14,929 cases or 82.19 per cent of overall Covid-19 cases in the state.

In spite of that, 3,061 Covid-19 patients are still being treated for Covid-19 at health facilities and low-risk quarantine centres throughout Sarawak.

On another note, there were 385 new Person-Under-Investigation (PUI) cases reported and none awaiting the results of the Covid-19 swab test. — DayakDaily