By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Jan 30: As Covid-19 from the Pasai Cluster abates in Song District today with only three cases, Sibu returns in the limelight with the highest of 54 new cases linked to the cluster.
Just yesterday, Song overtook the origin of the cluster, Sibu in topping the list of daily Covid-19 infections, for the first time since the outbreak, with 47 cases while Sibu registered 33 related cases.
The Pasai Cluster continues its touch of Coronavirus today infecting eight districts with a total of 97 new cases, raising the cluster toll to 1,902.
Right after Sibu District was Kanowit that reported a spike of 31 new cases traced back to the cluster since yesterday’s figure of only two cases.
Following that, Bukit Mabong found four cases, Beluru two cases, Sarikei, Dalat and Belaga one each.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), in its daily reports today, said out of 19,250 individuals in the cluster screened, 17,800 were negatives and 1,298 more individuals are still awaiting laboratory test results.
Sibu as a whole registered 81 new cases with 54 cases traced back to the Pasai Cluster while 27 community cases were detected from screenings at various healthcare facilities in the district.
With Pasai Cluster and Sibu District continuing to top the list with highest number of daily cases statewide, the Sibu Hospital and Quarantine and Low Risk Treatment Centre (OKRC) are currently filled up with 1,066 patients as of today.
Three patients are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while another three patients are intubated but not in ICU wards.
Pasai Cluster was started by an infected individual who had returned from Johor on Dec 29, 2020 to attend her father’s funeral. During her self-quarantine at home, she was tested positive for Covid-19.
Mass screenings in her longhouse and nearby longhouses were immediately carried out but by the time when double digit infections were detected, the virus had long spread to longhouses in other districts as the guests of the funeral carried the infection back.
Pasai Cluster is, in Sarawak’s Covid-19 history, seen to be the most infectious cluster among others as it has been reporting cases in many other districts in the entire state. — DayakDaily
