A break in the Covid dark cloud

Sustained concerted efforts finally beginning to pay off as state’s weekly average cases, death toll drop

KUCHING: Sarawak’s Covid-19 situation is improving with the weekly average cases dropping to 340 this week from 596 the previous week, said state Health director Datuk Dr Mohamed Sapian Mohamed.

He also noted that the average daily death toll has halved from four daily in June to only two this month.

“This is a good sign which is the result from the Movement Control Order (MCO) and Covid-19 vaccination roll-out,” Dr Mohamed Sapian told a press conference on the Covid-19 daily update at the old state legislative assembly building yesterday.

At the same time, the bed usage in the intensive care unit (ICU) is only around 50 per cent compared to the peak when the usage was almost 100 per cent, he said.

Thus, he urged everyone to continue following the standard operating procedure (SOP), bringing those eligible for vaccination to get vaccinated, because by doing this, he is confident that the daily number of cases, number of clusters, severe cases and usage of beds in ICU will continue to decrease.

“We want to advise the people that we have not won (the fight against Covid-19) but we will with everyone’s commitment, the local community, agencies and volunteers at vaccination centres, quarantine centres and low-risk patients treatment centres (PKRCs),” he said.

Similarly, he noted that the cases at PKRCs and hospitals have decreased to 30-40 per cent of bed usages there.

“We are going to continue contact tracing to ensure close contacts were placed at quarantine centres so that the cases do not infect the public.”

With him at the conference was Sarawak Disaster Management Commi ee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, who admi ed that it is challenging to stop the spread of Delta variant (B.1.617.2) to the state.

Prior to the first Delta variant case detected Thursday, he said the state had introduced compulsory quarantine of 14 days to all entering Sarawak.

“Up to now, we do not allow anyone from Labuan to enter Sarawak. If they want to enter, they need to apply for permission from Sarawak government.

“We have instructed security officers to tighten our border control from Indonesia, which is another source of possible entry of all the other variants. We are trying very best to see how we can control the variants,” he added.

Uggah, who is a Deputy Chief Minister, said it is important for all Sarawakians to continue to comply with the SOP, practice good personal hygiene, observe physical distancing and avoid gathering.

He said there were still a lot of Covid-19 positive cases linked to social gatherings.

“We urge all to adhere to the SOP. The director (Dr Mohamed Sapian) has said that our cases have improved, and I’m sure that is the impact of all playing their part in making sure that we are all healthy and safe,” he added.

The first Delta case, detected on June 18, involved a 56-year-old man from Kuching. It is classified as an Import B case, which is a case imported from other states in Malaysia.

This is a good sign which is the result from the Movement Control Order (MCO) and Covid19 vaccination roll-out.

Datuk Dr Mohamed Sapian Mohamed