Covid-19: One new case reported, Kuching yellow zone

KUCHING: Sarawak yesterday recorded one new positive case of Covid-19 bringing the total number of positive cases in the state to 687, and changing Kuching District’s status from green to yellow zone.

In a statement, the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) said the case is a local transmission involving an Indian national, 26, a fisherman with a fishing company in Kuching.

“The individual has undergone rT-PCR swab test for Covid-19 for the purpose of returning to his country of origin at a private hospital in Kuching on Aug 20.

“Laboratory test results found his nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs to be positive for Covid-19 on the same day. He has no symptoms,” it said.

The individual is now under treatment at Sarawak General Hospital, and contact tracing is being done.

This case is classified as local transmission as the patient did not have any history of travelling abroad since arriving in Malaysia in July 2019.

SDMC said the state has seven active clusters involving 59 cases. They are the Engineering Firm Cluster with eight cases, Mambong (7), Sentosa (31), Melbourne PUI (3), Kuching Construction Company (2), Satok Market (4), and Alam in Bintulu (4).

It also said there are no cases of recovery and discharge. To-date, 661 or 96.22 per cent of total cases have recovered and discharged.

“Seven cases are still being treated at hospital’s isolation wards.

“Seventeen new PersonUnder-Investigation (PUIs) were reported today (yesterday), and 14 are still waiting for laboratory results,” it said.

The cumulative number of PUIs is 9,344.

On Person-Under-Surveillance (PUS), 52 individuals have checked into hotels for their compulsory quarantine yesterday. This brings the total number of PUS to 692 individuals at 14 hotels statewide.

The number of those who have completed their quarantine period stands at 22,004.

With no deaths reported, death toll remains at 19 or 2.77 per cent of total cases.