KUCHING, April 14: A wedding prayer gathering attended by some 70 people has resulted in Covid-19 spreading around Kampung Jepak in Bintulu as 42 people have been confirmed to be infected, thus triggering a new Jepak Cluster.
The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), in its daily report on the Covid-19 situation in Sarawak today, revealed that the community cluster involved infections among residents from around Kampung Jepak in Bintulu District who have attended the event organised in the village on April 3.
The index case or Case 18,498 is the organiser of the event who was detected following symptomatic screening at Bintulu Health Clinic on April 7.
The local woman was suspected to have been infected from the community.
Further investigation and screening on family members as well as close and casual contacts to the index case including those who had attended the ceremony uncovered 41 positive cases.
A total of 102 individuals linked to the cluster have been screened, whereby 36 tested negative in their first screening and 24 are still awaiting their lab test results.
All positive cases have been referred to Bintulu Hospital and admitted to the Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centre (PKRC) to be isolated and treated.
With a new cluster, Sarawak now has 49 active clusters, out of which 15 clusters have recorded an increases in daily cases.
The clusters are Jalan Puncak Borneo which registered 47 more cases today, Tembok Sri Aman (76 cases), Bulatan Aman (3 cases), Jalan Maju (1 case), Jalan Bangunan Kerajaan (2 cases in Miri and one case in Beluru), Kampung Binyu (16 cases), Jalan Bambangan (6 cases), Sungai Gemuan (8 cases), Disso (6 cases), Jalan Kapitan (2 cases), Jalan Kingsway (1 case), Abak Bon (1 case), and Sungai Rassau (1 case).
Meanwhile, Sarawak reported five Covid-19 fatalities and 489 new cases today. Kuching topped the list of daily infections with 99 cases followed by Sri Aman (76), Sibu (75), Miri (50), Bintulu (48), Beluru (32), Samarahan (25), Sarikei (17), Kapit and Mukah (9 each), Belaga and Meradong (8 each), Serian (7), Saratok (6), Subis and Marudi (5 each), Bau (3), Julau and Matu (2 each), while Lubok Antu, Pakan and Kabong has one case each.
This thus increased the state tally of positive cases to 21,448 and death toll to 133. — DayakDaily
