KUCHING: Sarawak recorded eight new positive Covid-19 cases on Saturday as well as a new cluster – Kuching Construction Company Cluster.
Of the new cases reported, there were four each from Kuching and Samarahan – bringing the total number of positive cases in the state thus far to 649.
The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) said that one of the cases involved a local man who returned from Kuala Lumpur by plane on July 14 through Kuching International Airport’s international gate.
He had been screened randomly on Day 10 after his arrival and his reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rT-PCR) test result on July 24 was positive for Covid-19. He did not show any symptoms.
Another case which involved a local was detected through screening at a construction site in Kuching. “The source of infection is still being investigated and contact tracing is still being carried out,” said the committee.
One of the cases reported was detected through screening of close contacts of an earlier positive case; Case 578 which had been detected on July 12.
“The new case is a local man who carried out his second screening on July 24. His rT-PCR test was positive today (Saturday). The first screening, which was carried out on July 12, was negative. This case also showed no signs or symptoms,” said SDMC.
The other five cases involved contact tracing from clusters which were currently active. Of these, the first is a local man who is a close contact of Case 575 – the index case of the Engineering Company Cluster. The first rT-PCR test done on July 14 was negative. The case later underwent a second screening on Day 13 (July 23) and his rT-PCR result was positive.
“Four cases were detected through active screening on all contacts in the Sentosa Cluster. They consist of two healthcare workers at the facility, a private company employee at the facility, and a family member of one of the positive cases – i.e. Case 617 which was screened on July 22,” it said, adding that all these cases did not show any symptoms.
On the new cluster, Kuching Construction Company Cluster, the committee said that it had been detected when a close contact of Case 578, an employee at a construction company in Kuching, was found to be Covid-19 positive on Saturday.
“Thus far, five family contacts of the index case have been screened and they were all Covid-19 negative. A total of 72 workplace contacts have been screened so far and only one new case has been found to be positive,” it said, adding that the investigation of infection source and contact tracing were still being carried out.
SDMC reported that four new cases had been added to the Sentosa Cluster, bringing its cumulative total to 20 individuals, while there was an additional case to the Engineering Company Cluster, bringing its total to four in that cluster.
“No other additional cases have been reported for the other active clusters.”
According to the committee, five new recovery cases were discharged from the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), bringing the cumulative total to 561, or 86.44 percent.
“Seventy individuals are still receiving treatment at hospital isolation wards and the total number of deaths remains at 18, or 2.77 percent,” it said.
Meanwhile, 18 new person-under-investigation (PUI) cases were reported while 13 were still awaiting laboratory results.
SDMC said that 72 persons-under-surveillance (PUS) had been checked into hotels on Saturday to undergo quarantine, bringing the total number of PUS at 11 hotels to 570, while 19,114 PUS had completed their quarantine period.
