KUCHING: Two new clusters were declared by the State Health Department (JKNS) today — the Lorong Desa Senadin Cluster in Miri District and the Batu Gong Cluster in Serian.
The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) said the Lorong Desa Senadin Cluster was a community cluster involving a maritime training centre at Lorong Desa Senadin, Lutong in Miri District.
They said the index case of this cluster was Case 12,919, a 22-year-old local man who was a trainee at the centre.
“The case was detected through symptomatic individual screening on Mar 15 at Miri Hospital. The index case is believed to have been infected through casual contact within the community between Mar 1 to 14,” they said in a statement today.
They said thus far, this cluster involved two districts, namely Miri and Mukah. They added that as a result of further investigation and active case detection (ACD) on close and casual contacts, an additional 29 positive cases were detected.
“A total of 173 persons have been screened, whereby 30 tested positive including the index case, 59 tested negative, and 84 are still awaiting results,” said the committee.
SDMC said 29 of these 30 positive cases were admitted to the Low-Risk Treatment Centre (PKRC) in Miri whereas one positive case was admitted to the PKRC in Mukah for isolation and treatment.
As for the Batu Gong Cluster in Serian District, they said this community cluster involved the settlement of Kampung Batu Gong, Siburan Sub-District in Serian District.
“The index case of this cluster is Case 14,157, a local woman aged 46 years who was detected through symptomatic individual screening on Mar 19 at Siburan Health Clinic,” they said.
They said the woman, who was self-employed, likely got infected through community infection and this spread to other individuals at the village through association and close contact.
“As a result of further investigation and ACD on family members, close contacts, and casual contacts of the index case, there have been an additional 49 positive cases.
“A total of 496 individuals have been screened, whereby 50 tested positive including the index case, 146 tested negative, and 300 are still awaiting results,” they said.
SDMC said all 50 of these positive cases were referred to Serian Hospital and admitted to Serian PKRC for isolation and further treatment.
As of today, there were 33 active clusters in Sarawak. Of these, eight reported an increase in cases.
