KUCHING: The State Health Department declared two new clusters today (Apr 28).
The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), in a statement, revealed that the two clusters were Ulu Strass Cluster in Meradong and Melugu Cluster in Sri Aman.
“The Ulu Strass Cluster is a community cluster that involves residents of a longhouse at Kilometre 2, Jalan Pakan in Ulu Strass, Meradong.
“The index case to this cluster is a 66-year-old man who was detected through symptomatic individual screening at Sarikei Hospital on Apr 16. The case began to experience symptoms of coughing on April 13 but only sought treatment on April 16 when he started to experience shortness of breath.
“The index case was infected by the community while he was in Pakan district and the infection has spread among his family members and the longhouse residents through social contacts with one another,” said SDMC.
It added that further investigation and active case detection through close contacts of the index case as well as targeted screening activities among the longhouse residents discovered 25 positive Covid-19 cases including the index case.
“These individuals have been referred to Sarikei Hospital and admitted to the Integrated Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) in the hospital for isolation and further treatment.
“Of the 47 individuals who were screened from this cluster, 22 were negative during the first rT-PCR test,” it said.
Meanwhile, the Melugu Cluster in Sri Aman involved an educational institution under the Ministry of Education (MoE).
The index case is a 32-year-old male secondary school teacher who was detected through symptomatic individual screening on April 21 at Sri Aman Health Clinic.
“The preliminary test using the Rapid Test Kit Antigen was found to be reactive on April 23 and the case has been admitted to a quarantine centre in Sri Aman.
“The confirmation test done using rT-PCR test found the case to be positive for Covid-19 via the result on April 25.
“The teacher was infected by the community while he was in Sri Aman district,” said SMDC.
The committee added that further investigation and screening of family members of the case index as well as targeted screening activities among staff and students of the school uncovered 13 Covid-19 positive cases including the case index.
“These individuals have been referred to Sri Aman Hospital and were admitted to the PKRC in the hospital for isolation and further treatment.
“582 individuals related to this cluster have been screened; 163 were negative while 406 are still waiting for their test results,” it said.
SDMC said out of 65 active clusters in the state, 10 clusters recorded 75 new Covid-19 positive cases.
It said that Tanjung Manis district had changed its status from yellow to orange after recording 25 local infection cases in the past 14 days. This brings the number of orange districts in the state to eight.
SDMC added that Lundu District had changed its status from green to yellow after recording one local infection case on Thursday. With that, there are now 11 yellow districts in the state.
It then added that 22 districts remained red , nine yellow and one green.
