KUCHING, July 8: Sarawak reported one new Covid-19 case in Sibu today, marking it the 573rd case in the state.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said the latest case is a Malaysian citizen working as an engineer at one of the oil and gas company in Saudi Arabia.
“He returned to Malaysia on July 3 on Saudi Arabia airline through Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). He had undergone the RTK test screening for Covid-19 antigen on the same day and the result was negative.
“He stayed at Tune Hotel KLIA and boarded an Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur to Sibu on July 4. Upon arrival into Sibu, he was then taken to a quarantine centre and had a swab test on July 6. The test result came back positive for Covid-19 on July 7 and he was immediately admitted to Sibu Hospital for further treatment,” Uggah said at a press conference today.
He added that the patient did not show any signs or symptoms of Covid-19.
Meanwhile, there are no new discharge cases from hospitals today, bring the number of recoveries to 551 or 96.16 per cent of the total cases to date.
Uggah revealed that five are still receiving treatment in isolation wards and they are all Sarawakians from overseas.
To date, all the five positive cases have been identified through PCR test and they went through the mandatory quarantine is mandatory quarantine.
He said although all five of them tested negative during their RTK test at KLIA, they later tested positive through PCR test in Sarawak.
Among them was one in Miri who had just returned from Tunisia, two in Bintulu who returned from Mexico and the United Kingdom respectively, and another two in Sibu who had just returned from Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.
“Hence, this is why the JPBN greatly emphasises that everyone who has returned from abroad must undergo mandatory a PCR test upon arrival and quarantined until their test results are negative before they are allowed to be quarantined at home. They will be tested on the second and tenth day,” Uggah said.
Since Kuala Lumpur does not quarantine international arrivals immediately, Uggah explained that Sarawak has to take its own measures for Malaysians arriving from overseas into the state.
“We have to sacrifice a little bit, even if it will cost Sarawak government to pay for these screening and quarantine centre. This is to ensure that Sarawak can be safe from Covid-19,” Uggah said.—DayakDaily
