By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Jan 21: Rh Helena at Tanjung Penasu is under lockdown since late evening yesterday (Jan 20) after 14 Covid-19 cases were reported.
Senator Robert Lau said this is to avoid any movement and spread of the virus to the other nine longhouses in the vicinity.
“There are other nine longhouses along the road although they are not nearby. So, we do not want them to move around there,” he told DayakDaily via telephone interview today.
However, he said further actions on nearby longhouses, whether to have screening tests there, is up to decisions from the Ministry of Health (KKM) and State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC).
“The police are guarding the longhouses to prevent people from going in and out, and we’ll see how it goes.
“Now we have done the first tests, but usually the symptoms would only show in four to 14 days and the longhouse people were tested a few days ago.
“KKM will have to advice (on next step),” he said.
While noting that he did not have the exact number of individuals from Rh Helena who went for the Covid-19 swabs, he revealed that all other residents other than the 14 positives had negative results.
Despite this, he expressed hope that the virus will not spread.
Earlier in a Facebook post, Lau said the infection to the longhouse might have originated from the Pasai Cluster, most likely from a private function at Rh Helena in early January.
“My understanding is that it originated from Pasai (Cluster) during a function. The function was hosted in early January or the first week of January.
“So, when the individual from Pasai (Cluster) was tested positive, everyone at Rh Helena went for testing and it yielded 14 cases,” he said.
In SDMC’s report yesterday, there were 120 new cases in Sibu and 78 were involved with the Pasai Cluster. Out of the 78, 14 were from Rh Helena. —DayakDaily
