Note of Editor: The story has been updated for accuracy.
By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Jan 9: Sibu town and Kuching city are poised to turn into Covid-19 red zones soon.
Minister for Local Government and Housing Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian pointed out that Sarawak registered double-digits cases in the past few days and the current fourth wave of Covid-19 in Sarawak has spread fast and highly infectious.
Thus, he reminded the people to abide by the standard operating procedures (SOPs) and remain vigilant.
“Sibu will soon turn into a red zone as there were 37 cases reported there.
“Just because a member of a family passed away and people attended the funeral, many people got infected.
“Within one or two days, Kuching will also become a red zone,” he said during live streaming on the Facebook of Kuching City South Council (MBKS) mayor Datuk Wee Hong Seng today.
Within 14 days, if an district has less than 20 cases, then it is considered a Covid-19 yellow zone; between 21 to 40 cases, it is orange zone and the district will turn into red zone if the cases reaches 41.
Dr Sim who is also the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor attended the live streaming as a guest to provide an update on the latest situation of Covid-19.
He said the fourth wave of Covid-19 in Sarawak has infected mostly young people who are symptomatic presenting coughs and cold.
Earlier, the Divisional Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) in Sibu announced that there were 37 new Covid-19 cases detected at the Langi Longhouse at Pasai Siong in Sibu.
The committee said all the cases were identified from close contact screening of Case 1,175 (index case) reported on Jan 7.
It noted the index case was a local woman who returned from Johor to Kuching through Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).
Yesterday, SDMC revealed that there were 11 cases reported in the past fortnight in Sibu including two local transmission cases.
The committee added that Kuching reported 42 cases in the past 14 days including 25 cases of local transmission.
On the situation of Covid-19 throughout the country, Dr Sim opined that some of the states, for instance, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Johor and Sabah will be imposed with Movement Control Order (MCO) soon.
He noted the cases reported from those states were high and if no measure were to be taken, the cases could reach as high as 8,000 a day with more deaths to be reported.
At the same time, Dr Sim said the Sarawak Government is reviewing some of the policies and SOPs such as inter-state travel as the state government has local ordinances to deal with the Covid-19 situation.
Dr Sim is hopeful that the state will be able to flatten the curve of the fourth wave of the Covid-19 infection as done in the past three waves if people abide and comply with the SOPs set by the government and the Health Ministry. —DayakDaily
