Lecturer, 40, Sarawak’s latest Covid-19 fatality

KUCHING: Covid-19 claimed another life in Sarawak yesterday, this time a 40-year-old lecturer from Kota Samarahan who had a travel history to Kuala Lumpur. Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian, who announced this, said the latest coronavirus fatality was the state’s eighth. Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had earlier identified the lecturer as an Indonesian, who was admi ed to Sarawak General Hospital on March 20 and died at 1.38am. Dr Sim meanwhile said 21 new positive cases were recorded in Sarawak yesterday, of which 20 were admi ed to Sarawak General Hospital and one at Sibu Hospital. “These (new cases) have brought the total number of positive cases to 156,” he told a press conference at Wisma Bapa Malaysia here. Dr Sim said the number of positive cases recorded was the highest for a single day in the state thus far, and a ributed this to people responding to the government’s call to undergo a medical check-up if they had come into contact with suspected Covid-19 cases. On the two earlier Covid-19 deaths involving a 47-year-old man from Kuching and 41-yearold woman in Miri, he said the source of the virus in both cases was still being investigated. He also disclosed the state recorded 46 new Person Under Investigation (PUI) cases yesterday. “Since yesterday (Monday), 93 patients are still in our various hospitals. We have nine in the Intensive Care Unit of which eight are in Sarawak General Hospital and one in Sibu Hospital. “To date, we have discharged 14 patients – nine from Sarawak General Hospital, four from Sibu Hospital and one from Miri Hospital,” he added. Meanwhile, Dr Sim clarified that the Covid-19 virus that claimed the lives of three family members here was not from a family member who had contracted the virus while on holiday in Italy. “I never said that the family went to Italy for a holiday. I just said it’s an Italian strain from someone who went to Italy for a holiday and as a result, the family caught the Covid-19,” he said. He also said that in that family cluster, 27 family members or relatives had been infected and one was intubated. The State Disaster Management Commi ee had reported that a mother and her daughter had died from the virus on March 21, and on March 23, the woman’s son also died. Also present at the press conference were Sarawak Health Department director Dr Chin Zin Hing, Sarawak Deputy Police Commissioner Datuk Dev Kumar and First Infantry Division commander Major Gen Datuk Md Din Abu.