KUCHING, Sept 17 — A total of 298 schools in eight districts in Sarawak have been ordered to close today after the Air Pollutant Index (API) in Sri Aman reached the hazardous level of 365 at 8am.

State Education Department in a statement said the schools comprised 53 secondary and 245 primary schools involving 128,291 students in Betong, Bau, Kuching, Lubok Antu, Padawan, Samarahan, Sri Aman and Lundu.

Secretariat head of the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee, Major Ismail Mahedin from the state’s Civil Defence Force, reportedly said that Kuching recorded a very unhealthy API reading of 219.

Eight districts registered an API reading of unhealthy namely Samarahan (160), Sarikei (148), Sibu (166), Bintulu (129), Mukah (140), Samalaju (113), ILP Miri (107) and Miri (126). — Bernama

Distribution of hotspots detected from September 1 to 16, 2019. ― Picture via ASMC