By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Jan 3: Miri, Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Kapit reported a total of 10 new Covid-19 cases today, with eight local transmission cases and two imported cases.
According to the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), three cases were reported in Miri, two each in Kuching, Sibu and Bintulu, and one case in Kapit.
Cases 1,135, 1,136 and 1,137 in Miri are Sarawakians who are close contacts of Case 1,116 which was reported on Dec 31 as involving an assistant pilot working for Rural Air Services (RAS) in Miri.
“All three of them are co-workers and social contacts to the index case which is Case 1,116. These three patients have undergone Covid-19 screening on Jan 1 and were found to be positive on Jan 2.
“One of them started to experience coughs on Jan 1 while the other two were asymptomatic and showed no signs of infection,” said the committee in a statement today.
In Kuching, the two new cases are Sarawakians who are close contacts and co-workers of Case 1,119 reported on Jan 1, involving a local woman who worked as an insurance agent.
They were swabbed at a government health clinics on Jan 2 and their results came out positive on the same day.
In Sibu, two Indonesians who were caught and found to have overstayed in Sarawak were the two positive cases reported today.
“They are brothers who were detained on Dec 9 in Sibu. Investigations have shown that they have been staying in Sarwaak since two years ago and they admitted they have not returned to their original country ever since.
“Case 1,138 is a rubbish truck driver operating near Sibujaya and Kanowit while Case 1,139 is a general worker who cuts grass near Sibujaya,” said SDMC.
The eighth local transmission case detected in Kapit is an Indonesian working at a road construction site who was screened on Dec 31.
The male patient, Case 1,140, is a general worker with a local construction company building roads leading to the Baleh Dam. Later investigations revraled he had previously worked in Tatau and Bintulu before Kapit.
Meanwhile, the two new cases in Bintulu today are non-Sarawakians who arrived via Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Jan 1 for work. One of them is an equipment maintenance manager at a factory in Bintulu.
“Cases 1,134 is the son of Case 1,133 who were on the same journey from Selangor to Bintulu. Both of them have been admitted into quarantine centres for a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
“Their rT-PCR (rapid test polymerase chain reaction) test were found to be positive on Jan 2,” the committee added.
With 10 new cases in Sarawak, SDMC said the cumulative number of cases in the state now stands at 1,140.
The committee also reported zero new recoveries who have been discharged from Sarawak General Hospital while 48 patients are still receiving treatment in hospitals across the state.
“Today, there are 12 new Person-Under-Investigation (PUI) cases and one case awaiting laboratory test results,” it noted.
There are 555 Persons-Under-Surveillance (PUS) who were registered into various hotels across Sarawak to be quarantined, and a total of 3,732 individuals under quarantine in 43 hotels throughout Sarawak while 47,471PUS have completed their 14-day quarantine. — DayakDaily
