MIRI: The rabies outbreak has not spread to Miri City as claimed by certain quarters in the social media that went viral yesterday, said Miri City mayor Adam Yii Siew Sang .
“It is fake news,” he told Bernama when asked to comment on the rabies outbreak alert posted on the popular chat application, WhatsApp that claimed five dogs infected with rabies were culled at Kuala Baram here yesterday morning.
A picture of a fragile skinny dog accompanied the posting which further claimed that the dog was seen at Taman Tunku, one of the densely populated housing estates in Miri City.
Although Miri City is still free from rabies outbreak, Yii advised pet owners to take necessary precaution to avert the risk of the rabies virus being spread here, including vaccinating their pets and keeping them within the compound.
He said the public must give their cooperation to prevent any further outbreak. So far, the rabies outbreak has been reported in Kuching, Samarahan and Sri Aman.
Meanwhile in KUCHING, the Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee secretariat lodged a police report at the Tebedu Police station yesterday over various fake postings in the Whatsapp and Facebook.
Major Ismail Mahedin of the Civil Defence Force lodged the report at 2.15 pm over one of the fake postings that claimed more than 20 locations in Sarawak had been gazetted as of yesterday as rabies outbreak areas when in actual fact only 20 had been declared so far.
