By Karen Bong
KUCHING, June 29: Sarawakians must realise that they need to learn to live with Covid-19, given the scientific reality that this disease is on course to become endemic despite the mass rollout of safe and effective vaccines.
Highlighting this, Minister for Local Government and Housing Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian emphasised that Sarawakians need to learn lessons from the past 16 months and act promptly in order to bring the pandemic under control in Sarawak.
“After more than one year of Covid-19 pandemic, Sarawak (is) no longer in containment phase (in the whole of last year), but into mitigation phase now.
“We need to realise (that we) will need to live with the virus as it becomes endemic, even post-vaccination,” he shared in his post on Facebook last night.
He stressed that people need to take up responsibility to continuously fight Covid-19 by playing their roles and doing their parts seriously to curb the spread of the disease as well as new clusters especially in workplaces.
Meanwhile, it was reported that Sarawak recorded 27 workplace clusters involving 1,765 cases between May 29 (when Movement Control Order was imposed) and June 24 this year.
On the naming of clusters, Dr Sim, who is also State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor, pointed out that it should be named based on the premises where the Covid-19 cases originated from, instead of naming the cluster after the name of roads, for clarity.
“In times of crisis like now, public interest should supersede privacy. (Clusters should be) named (after) supermarkets, restaurants, kopitiams, shopping centres, etc, rather than name of the road leading to many vested interest groups claiming their sectors did not have a cluster,” he said.
Dr Sim also urged the community, private sector as well as longhouses and villages to work closely with relevant agencies and ministries, health authorities including Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) to prevent the recurrence of Covid-19 cases.
As for the 83 new daily infections recorded under Kuching District Health Office yesterday, Dr Sim warned 72 cases were close contacts to positive cases detected in 34 locations all over Kuching.
Among the locations with more than three cases were Kampung Tabuan Tani (16 cases), Kampung Siol Kandis (12 cases), Kampung Tematu (7 cases) while Kampung Sejingkat, Kampung Sungai Midin and Guard & Escort dormitory has three cases each. — DayakDaily
