KUCHING: Sarawak recorded no new positive Covid-19 cases for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday (August 18), with the total number of positive cases in the state thus far remaining at 682.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas informed that one new case had recovered and was discharged from the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) on Tuesday, bringing the cumulative number of recovered and discharged cases to 660 or 96.77 percent.
“Three individuals are still being treated in hospital isolation wards and the death toll remains at 19 or 2.79 percent,” he said at the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) Covid-19 daily update press conference on Tuesday (August 18).
“Today (Tuesday), 22 new person under investigation (PUI) cases were reported and one case is still awaiting laboratory results,” he said.
There were still seven active clusters remaining in the state as of Tuesday.
Uggah, who is also SDMC chairman, said that 146 persons under surveillance (PUS) had been checked into hotels on Tuesday to undergo quarantine, bringing the total number of PUS at 16 hotels to 685, while 21,787 PUS had completed their quarantine period.
Providing a screening report, he said that to date a total of 1,884 samples had been taken from 22 health facilities identified statewide for Covid-19 testing among influenza-like illness (ILI) cases, from April to August.
Of this total, he said that one positive sample was detected in Sibu in April, while 1,875 samples were negative and eight were still pending laboratory results.
Meanwhile, he said that five Health Ministry clinics in the Kuching Division had been identified to undergo surveillance of respiratory symptoms starting July 20.
“A total of 316 samples were taken for reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rT-PCR) Covid-19 testing and all the results were negative,” he said.
With regard to surveillance on markets, he said that a total of 2,399 rT-PCR test samples had been taken from 14 markets, with 11 samples testing positive and the remaining 2,388 testing negative.
“For surveillance on construction sites, random screening tests were conducted at 152 construction sites located in Kota Samarahan (11 sites), Serian (five), Sri Aman (four), Betong (seven), Sarikei (four), Sibu (four), Kapit (four), Mukah (16), Bintulu (33), Miri (59), and Limbang (five),” he said.
Uggah added that 1,439 samples were taken for rT-PCR Covid-19 testing – 1,029 from Malaysians and 410 from documented immigrants. He said that one positive sample was obtained from a construction site in Samarahan while the remaining 1,438 were negative.
He said that random screening had also been conducted at 44 plantations, with seven in Lundu, Sri Aman (ten), Mukah (eight), Betong (ten), and Bintulu (nine).
“A total of 604 samples were taken, whereby 277 samples were from Malaysians and 327 from documented immigrants. From this total, 569 samples were negative while 35 are still pending laboratory results,” he said.
For screening of fishermen, he reported that 175 from Sibu and Betong had undergone rT-PCR Covid-19 testing and all the samples had returned negative.
Lastly, he said that 114 samples had been taken among staff and teachers of 17 taskas (nurseries), with all of them testing negative for Covid-19.
