KUCHING: Three new Covid-19 clusters were declared by the State Health Department on Monday (April 26).
The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) said the Sungai Senibung Cluster was an educational institution cluster involving a secondary school in Sungai Senibung, Julau.
“The index case to this cluster is a 15-year-old male student from the school who was detected through symptomatic individual screening on April 20.
“Previously, the index case had been in a longhouse in Nangga Sebuntang before returning to the school’s hostel on April 4 for the start of the school session.
“Active case detection (ACD) involving staff and other students yielded an additional 13 cases. Meanwhile, 290 individuals were screened in which 14 were positive, including the index case; 241 were negative after the first rT-PCR test, while 35 are still awaiting results,” said SDMC on Monday.
The Pondok Cluster is a workplace cluster involving government personnel at a government premises in Belaga. The case index is a 44-year-old local man who works as a uniformed personnel at the premises.
“The index case was detected through screening of symptomatic individuals on April 18 at Sungai Asap Health Clinic and was found positive in a rT-PCR test on April 21. The case, which started experiencing symptoms on April 8, was infected from the community around Belaga and the rapid spread of infection stemmed from a relatively overcrowded residence that was also inhabited by 17 other co-workers.
“ACD and further investigation of close contacts and colleagues saw an addition of eight cases. All nine cases were referred to Bintulu Hospital and were admitted to low-risk treatment centres (PKRC) for isolation and further treatment.”
Meanwhile, the Jalan Sebauh-Bintulu Cluster is a mix of educational institutions and community clusters involving a secondary school and three longhouses in Jalan Sebauh-Bintulu, Sebauh District.
The index case is a 21-year-old local man from a longhouse in Jalan Sebauh-Bintulu who was detected through symptomatic individual screening on April 13.
“Further investigation found two students from a secondary school had contact with the index case and were confirmed positive on April 21.
“ACD of close contacts and casual contacts resulted in an additional 66 cases in which 20 were students from the secondary school.
“All 67 individuals who tested positive were referred to Bintulu Hospital and admitted to PKRC for isolation and further treatment.”
As of Monday, there are 61 active clusters in Sarawak whereby 15 clusters recorded 91 new cases while 46 clusters recorded no addition.
