KUCHING: Sarawak recorded 10 new positive Covid-19 cases yesterday, bringing the total number of positive cases in the state to 594 to date.
Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said six of the new cases were reported in Kuching and two each in Samarahan and Bintulu.
He said two cases which are imported cases involving non-citizens, are close contacts to the positive case detected on July 13 at the LNG Jupiter ship. The two cases were tested on July 16 and the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test came back positive on the same day.
“The other four cases involved local students that have returned from Australia and two are currently undergoing quarantine at a hotel.
“Two of the cases tested negative and were undergoing quarantine at home, but following a test on the 10th day, the results came back positive,” he said during the Covid-19 daily update press conference yesterday.
Uggah said of these four cases, two are from Kuching while the other two are from Samarahan. They also showed no symptoms of the virus and are currently undergoing treatment at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH).
“All these cases are categorised as imported cases which involved local citizens,” he explained.
Uggah added that one case involved a female senior citizen from Kuching. She was treated at a health clinic here but was referred to SGH on July 9 because she was suffering from severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), and also has diabetes and high blood pressure.
“A repeat swab test for RT-PCR on July 16 found that she was positive for Covid-19. This case is a local transmission as she did not have history of travelling overseas,” he said.
He added that another case involved a healthcare personnel, who is a workplace contact to case number 582 that was detected on July 15 as a result of contact tracing. The case also showed no symptoms of the virus and considered as local transmission as there was no history of going overseas.
“In addition, another two cases involving local citizens who went for self-test at a private hospital. They are also asymptomatic and their source of infection is still under investigation,” he said.
Uggah also said with the new cases reported, two new clusters — LNG Jupiter Ship cluster and the Kuching Medical Centre cluster have been identified.
“The total number of cases involving the LNG Jupiter Ship cluster is three people out of the 30 crew members who have been screened.
“While for the Kuching Medical Centre cluster, the total positive cases involving this cluster is two and the source of infection is being investigated and contact tracing is still ongoing,” he said.
On the number of recoveries, Uggah said there were no new cases of recovery and discharge. To date, the number of recoveries remained at 554 or 93.27 percent of the total cases, while 22 people are still receiving treatment at the hospital isolation ward.
On the numbers of person-under-investigation (PUI), Uggah said there were 23 new PUIs reported and two were awaiting laboratory results.
