New Covid-19 cluster declared involving Pulapol at Puncak Borneo

KUCHING: One new Covid-19 cluster, dubbed Jalan Puncak Borneo Cluster, was declared by the State Health Department yesterday with 61 cases so far, the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) said.

It said in a statement that an office within the Police Training Centre (Pulapol) at Jalan Puncak Borneo was at the centre of the cluster, contributing more than half of Kuching’s 106 Covid-19 cases yesterday.

The infections were detected after 111 individuals were screened for the virus. The rest had tested negative.

SDMC said the index case is a trainer from Perlis who was screened on April 9 at Kota Sentosa Health Clinic here after having fever a day earlier. He was confirmed positive for Covid-19 on April 12.

The trainer arrived in Sarawak on Nov 22, 2020 and was immediately placed on quarantine upon arrival at Pulapol.

“The spread of the infection among the Pulapol trainees was due to close social contact and lack of physical distancing among trainees who stayed at the same platoon and company hostels in large numbers,” said SDMC.

It added that all the positive cases in the cluster had been referred to the Sarawak General Hospital and admitted at the Kuching Quarantine and Treatment Centre.

Apart from the new cluster, 11 clusters out of 48 active ones in the state yesterday continued to report new Covid-19 cases.

The 11 clusters are Bulatan Aman (11 cases), Jalan Maju (2), Jalan Bambangan (47), Jalan Bangunan Kerajaan (4), Sungai Kawi (17), Disso (22), Jalan Badaruddin (2), Jalan Baji (3), Abok Bon (4) and Kampung Binyu (1).