BAU, Oct 24 — Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas has revealed that Sarawak has recorded eight new Covid-19 cases today, while warning people in the state to be extra cautious.

He did not have further details on the cases as he had just gotten off the phone with the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), and the full report will be revealed by the committee later afternoon, he said.

"Today we have eight new cases. So you better take care and wear your masks properly.

"Six are close contact or family members of an existing case, and two are local cases we are still investigating. We don’t have further details as yet.

"SDMC will issue a statement later (with complete details),” said Uggah who is also the committee’s chairman.

He was speaking to reporters after officiating at the Agriculture Outreach Programme (AgriCOP) in Singai here this afternoon asking to verify a Facebook post by Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian last night (Friday), who revealed that two of the new cases were close contacts of Case 771, who was a cake seller.

They were the wife and daughter of Case 771.

Dr Sim in his post also said the new cases also have visited several commercial and construction sites in Kuching over the last few days.

Another case, Dr Sim revealed, was a close contact of Chinese national woman Case 772, who was her flatmate.

"So looking at the trend, although Sarawak’s cases looked like they are flattening, we have to be very careful. I will be meeting with our (SDMC) team to look at whether we need to do active case detection (ACD) operations in any of the affected areas.

"We have one or two cases where we need to do a very extensive contact tracing programme. The whole idea is contact tracing, then isolate.

"So I advise the public to please remain vigilant and follow the standard operating procedures because that is how Sarawak managed to be where we are today.

"The Health Department and SDMC are in full swing. We are monitoring everything closely,” said Uggah.

On a related note, Uggah rebutted a social media post which went viral yesterday, claiming that there has been a surge of cases from Lundu, Sematan and Telok Melano, advising people to stay away from these places.

He said SDMC never issued such a notice.

"I appeal to the public not to spread rumours and fake news because that can alarm the people and cause a lot of problems.

"Please be disciplined, wait for the SDMC official announcement,” he said. — Borneo Post Online