KUCHING: Sarawak recorded one new positive Covid-19 case in Bintulu yesterday, bringing the total number of positive cases in the state to 561.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas disclosed that this latest case was a family member of case 557 reported last Sunday — a student studying in Mukah who had returned to Bintulu. He added that the case had been detected as a result of screening and contact tracing in relation to case 557.
He said the latest case, along with the three positive cases reported on Tuesday in Bintulu as well, was considered a family cluster.
“The Sarawak Health Department (JKNS) will do contact tracing and monitor the situation. If needed, depending on the situation, we may move towards an active case detection (ACD) operation. As of now, no decision has been made towards this direction,” he said at the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) Covid-19 daily update press conference here yesterday.
He added that there were no new recoveries or recovered cases discharged from hospitals on yesterday, with the total number of recovered and discharged Covid-19 cases remaining at 534 or 95.19 percent.
“Ten cases are still receiving treatment at hospitals in the isolation ward and the total number of deaths so far remains at 17,” he said.
He also said that 17 new person-under-investigation (PUI) cases had been reported and 11 cases are still awaiting laboratory results.
Uggah, who is also SDMC chairman, said that 43 persons-under-surveillance (PUS) had checked into hotels to undergo quarantine yesterday, bringing the total number of PUS at 12 hotels statewide to 648 while 16,184 PUS had completed their quarantine period.
On the recovery movement control order (RMCO), he stressed that the compliance surveillance team would not hesitate to take action against anyone found violating the standard operating procedures (SOPs).
“The time for advising has ended. The next step is to take action against violators,” he said.
He said that 1,624 premises had been inspected, including supermarkets (315), restaurants (356), factories (27), banks (166), government offices (73), hawker stalls (22), public markets (137), places of worship (94), recreational places (53), construction sites (72), and others (624).
With regard to Op Benteng, a national-level operation conducted to prevent the entry of undocumented immigrants, he said that there are six locations where roadblocks had been set up — Lundu, Bau, Padawan, Serian, Sri Aman, and Lubok Antu — involving 105 personnel.
“Up until today, 1,137 vehicles have been inspected and no arrests have been reported yet. This operation is important to ensure that undocumented immigrants do not enter Sarawak,” said Uggah, noting that the state had experienced numerous imported Covid-19 cases.
