Surau prayers yield new Melor Cluster in Pusa with 13 infections

Sarawak Covid-19

KUCHING, March 10: Congregational prayers at a surau in Kampung Beladin had sparked an outbreak of a new Melor Cluster in Pusa after 13 people were confirmed to have contracted Covid-19 today.

The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has today declared that a new community cluster has emerged at Lorong Melor in Kampung Beladin located in Pusa District.

According to its daily Covid-19 situation update for Sarawak, SDMC reported that the index case was a 23-year-old local who was detected from symptomatic screening on Feb 24.

As a result of contact tracing and screenings of close contacts to the index case, 13 people were found to have been infected.
As such, the total number of people infected in the cluster now stands at 14.

Infections were suspected to have spread through close mingling and congregational prayers at a surau in the village.

Up until today, a total of 335 individuals have been screened whereby 301 were negative and 20 are still waiting for lab test results.

The new cluster thus increased the number of active clusters in Sarawak to 27.

Meanwhile, Sarawak reported 199 new Covid-19 cases today with Sibu continued to top the list of daily infections with 41 cases followed by Kapit and Kuching (33 cases each), Miri (22), Song (19), Bintulu and Tatau (8 each), Seian, Bau and Betong (6 each), Samarahan (4), Bukit Mabong (3), Mukah and Pusa (2 each) as well as Dalat, Saratok, Sarikei, Sri Aman, Subis and Selangau has one case each.

This thus increased the state tally of positive cases to 11,710. -DayakDaily