Close contacts with Jalan Chester cluster urged to undergo screening
TAWAU: Individuals who have had close contact with the index case involving a jewellery store sales personnel are urged to come forward for the Covid-19 screening test.
The index case was found positive on Feb 2 through a symptomatic screening, and based on close contact screening, nine others were found to be infected.
Tawau member of parliament, Datuk Christina Liew made the call yesterday during her visits to three Buddhist temples to hand over bags of rice and calendars to the associations concerned. They are Tawau Maha Bodhi Society Temple, Tawau Lean Peng Buddhist Association Temple and Tawau Amidism Buddha Temple.
She said it was disheartening to note that Jalan Chester here had emerged as a new Covid-19 cluster (as disclosed by Sabah Covid-19 spokesperson Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun at a press conference on Saturday).
It was reported that the Jalan
Chester Cluster, a workplace cluster, now has seven new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total cumulative cases to 10.
“Under the circumstances, we cannot rule out the possibility of undetected Covid-19 cases in our midst. As we are aware, the virus is already in the community. In this respect, I call on the Tawau community to be more vigilant and strictly comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in order to curb the spread of infections,” Liew, a former Deputy Chief Minister, said.
From her observation, Tawau was out of the red zone (41 and above cases) in the first few days of this month.
“We were actually in the yellow zone (1-19 cases), and could be heading to the green zone (0 cases). However, in a matter of days, we were designated as a red zone again when the figure soared to 41 cases on Saturday,” she lamented.
Liew, who was accompanied by the Tawau Parliamentary chief liaison officer, Fung Thin Yein, emphasised the need for strict compliance with the SOPs set by the Health Ministry.
“To get out of the red zone, we cannot afford to create any more new workplace or community clusters in the Tawau district,” she said.
The seven new cases from Jalan Chester Cluster were among 233 new Covid-19 infections registered in the State on Saturday. Two deaths were also reported, one in Tawau and the other in Kalabakan.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Tawau Lean Peng Buddhist Association, Koh Lin Kiang expressed the association’s gratitude to the Tawau MP for her contribution.
“We are happy that (Datuk) Liew remembers us during this pandemic,” he said.
Yee Siew Yee, who represented the Tawau Amidism Buddha Temple, thanked Liew on behalf of the management.