KUCHING: The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has acquired a number of hotels and places to address the issue of quarantine centres and rising Covid-19 numbers, especially in Sibu.
“Preparations are being made to ensure the places are sufficient. It is the same in Miri; there are new places which will be prepared, such as service apartments and so on,” said SDMC chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas at the SDMC Covid-19 update press conference on Friday (Jan 15).
In terms of screening, he assured that the committee was also managing Covid-19 testing capacity by involving private laboratories.
“They will add to our capacity to address the increased daily screenings we are getting now. Our objective is to ensure that results can come out within 24 hours.
“At the moment, some of it is extended to 36 hours, but we hope that with the assistance from the private sector and the increase within the State Health Department (JKNS) itself, we can increase our daily screening capacity,” he said.
In response to a question on whether Sarawak would follow the Health Ministry’s decision to only test symptomatic individuals, he said this had been discussed with JKNS and assured that Sarawak would continue with its practice of aggressive contact tracing and testing.
“When we have the contact, then we will test whether they have symptoms or not,” said Uggah, who is also Deputy Chief Minister.
On another matter, he urged the public not to be confused by fake news, pointing out that he had noticed a lot of fake news over the last few days.
“This is a very irresponsible action and it really causes a lot of confusion among the people. We are already in a very difficult situation because of Covid-19 and yet there are people who want to spread fake news,” he said.
In response to another question on reports that non-Pasai Siong residents were now unable to leave the area due to the lockdown there, Uggah said the committee had not received such information.
However, he emphasised that as there was a lockdown in place, SDMC would not allow anyone to leave the area for 14 days until they were certain that those there were not Covid-19 positive.
