KUCHING: Sarawak recorded nine new positive Covid-19 cases, bringing the cumulative total of positive cases in the state to 628.
The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) said that the new cases were all reported in Kuching. Two of nine cases were imported from overseas — a local who had just returned from South Korea and another from Russia.
“The first case had returned to Sarawak on July 9 from South Korea through the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). The person spent the night at KLIA, then took a flight to Kuching on July 10.
“The case was brought to a hotel quarantine centre on arrival in Kuching to undergo the compulsory 14-day quarantine. Prior to this, the case was screened at KLIA via RTK Antigen and the result was negative on July 9.
“The case was swabbed for the first rT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test on July 11 and tested negative. Another swab test was done on July 20 and found to be positive on July 22,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the second case had returned to Sarawak on July 6 from Russia through London and on to KLIA. The case was brought to a hotel quarantine centre on arrival in Kuching to undergo the compulsory 14-day quarantine.
The case was swabbed for the first rT-PCR test on July 6 and tested negative the next day (July 7). On July 18, the case was tested again and tested positive.
Apart from that, four cases were related to contact tracing from existing clusters.
One of them is related to Case 602 (Sentosa Cluster). The case underwent rT-PCR swab test on July 20 and tested positive the following day (July 21).
The other three cases were detected through screening and contact tracing within the Stutong Market Cluster. The cases, who are locals, underwent rT-PCR swab tests on July 20 and were tested positive on July 22.
SDMC reported that another case was detected through random screening of teachers returning from vacation.
The case who is a local, boarded a plane from Kota Bahru to Kuching on July 4. The case’s screening test on July 21 July at the government health clinic was found to be positive for Covid-19.
One case was detected through contact tracing related to Case 587 who is a close contact. This person boarded the same plane from KLIA to KIA Kuching on July 15. The case underwent the rT-PCR screening test on July 18, and was found positive for Covid-19.
Meanwhile, another case reported is a close contact to Case 574 (Severe Acute Respiratory Infection-SARI case) who was found to be positive for Covid-19 on July 5.
All 11 cases reported on Wednesday did not show any Covid-19 signs or symptoms. SDMC has declared that the existing Construction Site Cluster, has been declared closed after no new cases were detected within the last 28 days.
“The last case involving this cluster was reported on June 24 which is Case 570. The last case was also discharged and recovered on July 6.
“To date, a total of 292 people have been screened and only three (3) cases (1.03 pct.) have been found positive for Covid-19. The case index for the Construction Site Cluster is Case-563 reported on June 18 who is a non-Indonesian citizen who entered Sarawak in March 2020.
“As the movement of the index case was long before the infection was detected, the cause of the Construction Site Cluster likely stems from local infections,” the statement added.
SDMC added that there were no new cases of recoveries or discharges from hospitals, bringing the total number of recovered and discharged cases to 556, or 88.54 percent.
“Fifty-four individuals are still receiving treatment at hospital isolation wards and the total number of deaths remains at 18, or 2.87 percent.
“A total of 21 new person under investigation (PUI) cases had been reported, and 12 were still awaiting laboratory results,” the statement read.
To date, 29 person under surveillance (PUS) cases were checked into hotels to undergo quarantine, bringing the total number of PUS at nine hotels to 504, while 19,035 PUS had completed their quarantine period.
