KUCHING: Sarawak recorded one new positive Covid-19 case in Miri on Saturday, bringing the total number of positive cases in the state thus far to 688.
In a statement on Saturday, the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee said the 688th case was categorised as an imported case, involving a local man, 55, who had returned from Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
“The case works as an offshore scaffolder in Amsterdam. His travel history showed that he took a flight on August 14 from Amsterdam and transited in Doha, Qatar before continuing with a flight to Kuala Lumpur (KL) through Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), arriving in Malaysia on August 15,” they said.
They said the case spent a night in KL before taking a flight back to Miri on August 16 through the Miri Airport.
“Upon arriving at Miri Airport, the case was immediately brought to the hotel quarantine centre in Miri to undergo the compulsory 14-day quarantine,” they said, adding that the case had not showed any signs or symptoms.
SDMC said that before returning to Malaysia, the case informed that he had undergone quarantine and a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rT-PCR) swab screening in Amsterdam. This rT-PCR swab test result was said to be negative for Covid-19.
Upon arriving in KL, the committee said the case had been screened with Rapid Test Kit Antigen (RTK-Antigen) on August 15 and the result was also negative.
While undergoing quarantine at the hotel quarantine centre in Miri, they said a swab had been taken from the case for the first rT-PCR test on August 18, with the laboratory test result returning on August 21 which found him to be positive for Covid-19.
“The case was admitted to Miri Hospital’s isolation ward on the same day for further treatment. Contact tracing and further investigation for this case are still being carried out,” they said.
Meanwhile, SDMC reported that one new case had recovered and been discharged from the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) on Saturday, bringing the total number of recovered and discharged cases thus far to 662 or 96.22 percent.
They said seven individuals were still receiving treatment at hospital isolation wards and the death toll remained at 19 or 2.76 percent.
“Today, three new person-under-investigation (PUI) cases have been reported while six are still awaiting laboratory results,” they said.
The committee said that 139 persons-under-surveillance (PUS) were checked into hotels on Saturday to undergo quarantine, bringing the total number of PUS at 14 hotels to 765, while 22,070 PUS had completed their quarantine period.
