Covid-19: Four new cases in Sarawak involving oil tanker crew in Bintulu
KUCHING: Sarawak’s five-day streak of zero Covid-19 cases ended yesterday with four new cases recorded in Bintulu district.
Sarawak Disaster Management Commi ee (SDMC) in a statement said this brought the total number of Covid-19 cases reported in the state to date to 686.
It said the new cases were detected following screening of the crew of an oil tanker anchored in Bintulu waters which had just returned from Toyama Port in Japan.
“The travel history of the ship showed that it had stopped at Toyama Shinko Port, Japan from July 27 to Aug 1 before stopping at Labuan Port on Aug 10.
“While on its way to Bintulu waters, the captain of the ship informed the ship’s agent that there were two crew members who were ill and in need of hospital treatment,” it said.
SDMC added that further examination by the Bintulu Division Health Office on Aug 18 found that five people on board had early signs and symptoms of Covid-19.
“All of them were signed off, brought down and sent directly to Bintulu Hospital for further investigation and treatment. The rT-PCR screening found that four out of five people were positive for Covid-19 on Aug 20,” it said.
SDMC said of the four cases, two were Malaysians while the others were a Filipino and an Indian national, adding that the ship involved is registered in Port Klang.
In view of the four new cases, the commi ee said a new cluster dubbed Alam Cluster has been declared.
“Screening of the remaining 22 crew members will be carried out soon including screening of all contacts who may be at risk of infection during the process of bringing the cases down from the ship to the hospital.
“Preliminary investigations have shown that this cluster is caused by a foreign infection, which may have been carried by the crew who boarded the ship during a stopover at an international port,” SDMC said.
It added that further investigation of this cluster is still underway and tracing and screening of all contacts are in full swing.