By Karen Bong
KUCHING, March 12: Two new clusters linked to longhouses have been declared in Meradong dubbed as Buluh Pasi and in Miri dubbed as Sena with infections spread to Subis, after 21 and 61 people tested positive for Covid-19 respectively overnight.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas reported Cluster Sena is a community cluster detected in Miri District involving close contact to the index case at Lorong Sena in Desa Senadin, Permyjaya and two other longhouses in Subis District.
“The index case of the cluster is Case 8,866 who is a 47-year-old woman detected through symptomatic screening on Feb 24 after she showed symptoms since Feb 19.
“Screenings on close contacts to the index case in all localities they visited found 61 individuals were positive,” he told a press conference on Covid-19 situation update for Sarawak today.
As of today, a total of 166 individuals have been screened whereby 95 were negative while 10 were still waiting for lab test results.
As for Buluh Pasi Cluster, Uggah disclosed that it was also a community cluster involving a longhouse at Sungai Buluh area at Jalan Pasi in Meradong District under Sarikei Division.
“The index case of the cluster is Case 7,680 identified through screening at the workplace initiated by its employer.
“The index case worked in Sibu town had undergone screening at Lanang Health Clinic and was found positive on Feb 20,” he said.
Uggah, who is also Deputy Chief Minister, informed that he was suspected to have been infected in Sibu through close mingling within the community in the same longhouse.
“Close contact screening to the index case found 20 more cases including three new cases detected today,” he added.
As of today, a total of 267 individuals have been screened whereby 246 were negative and no results were pending.
Meanwhile, Buluh Pasi Cluster and Sena Cluster were among three clusters detected in Sarawak today. The other cluster was Jalan Main Bazaar in Sri Aman with 12 positive cases involving a family of 10 and two students of a secondary school.
With three new clusters, this thus increased the number of active clusters in Sarawak to 28. – DayakDaily
