KUCHING: Sarawak recorded four new locally-transmitted positive Covid-19 cases today, all of which were detected in Kuching and relating to the Bah Arnab Cluster.
In a statement today, the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) said this brought the cumulative tally of cases in the state thus far to 763.
“All these cases are close contacts of a positive Covid-19 case and they were detected through the second screening on Day 10 while these contacts were under 14-day quarantine instruction,” they said.
They said the index case for these cases was Case 719, a citizen with a history of travel to Sabah before being screened and found positive for Covid-19 on Oct 6.
Of the four cases reported which had close contact with the positive Covid-19 case, Case 760 was a local man, Case 762 a local woman, and Cases 761 and 763 were local boys.
“The exposure time for these cases was between Oct 2 and 6, when Case 719 was undergoing quarantine at home. The first reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test was done on Oct 6 and all four cases were found negative on Oct 8,” said the committee.
They said the cases were placed in a quarantine centre to undergo the remainder of their quarantine after three new cases were detected after their first screening on Oct 8.
“The cases were then screened a second time on Oct 16 and their RT-PCR test results were found positive today,” said SDMC, adding that all four cases had not shown any symptoms of Covid-19.
The cases were admitted into Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) for further treatment.
As of Saturday, there were two remaining active clusters in Sarawak, namely the Bah Arnab Cluster in Kuching and the Putra Cluster in Bintulu.
With the new cases reported on Saturday, there were four new additions to the Bah Arnab Cluster, involving close contacts of the index case.
The committee said a total of 36 individuals in this cluster had been screened, with eight testing positive and 28 testing negative.
It was also reported that four new cases had recovered and been discharged from SGH on Saturday, bringing the total number of recovered and discharged cases to 700 or 91.74 percent.
“Seven new person-under-investigation (PUI) cases have been reported and one PUI is still awaiting laboratory results,” they said.
SDMC said 162 persons-under-surveillance (PUS) were checked into hotels on Saturday to undergo quarantine, bringing the total number of PUS at 23 hotels to 1,930 while 26,616 PUS had completed their quarantine period.
As of Saturday, there were 44 cases undergoing treatment at hospital isolation wards — 27 in SGH, eight in Miri Hospital, seven in Bintulu Hospital, and two in Sibu Hospital.
