KUCHING: Another 36 Omicron COVID-19 variant cases have been detected in Kuching, Samarahan, Sibu and Kapit divisions this month.
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s (UNIMAS) Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) director Prof Dr David Perera in his report covering December 2021 to January 11, 2022 to Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas on Saturday (Jan 15), said that majority of these cases appeared to involve community transmissions.
“The Omicron variant is highly transmissible. Our cases are through community transmissions.
“As such the public are urged to be extremely cautious in the coming festive period of the Chinese New Year,” he said.
He stressed that the public health standard operating procedures (SOP) need to be strictly adhered to.
“If possible, community gatherings should be avoided to prevent further community spread,” he pointed out.
Dr David, who is also a member of the Sarawak COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group (SCoVAG) advised those who are yet to get their booster shot to get them immediately.
Studies, he said, had shown the booster shot is necessary to boost waning neutralising antibody levels to protect from Omicron infection.
Apart from that, he said the IHCM, which is tracking the SARS-CoV-2 variants circulating in the state, had successfully sequenced 262 samples within its current report period.
“The Delta variant remained the dominant circulating variant in December with 212 cases detected and a further six cases detected this January.
“However in late December, we detected eight cases of Omicron variant of which seven were import cases and one case with no history of recent travel. Then we had the other 36 cases as mentioned earlier,” he stated.
