KUCHING, April 5 — The index case in the Covid-19 Tembok Sri Aman cluster, which was announced yesterday, was a prisoner who was about to be released on parole from the Sri Aman prison, Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian revealed.

"Index case was diagnosed as part of SOP (standard operating procedure) before parole back to community!,” he said on his Facebook page last night.

He revealed further that 157 prisoners and three prison guards had been infected, and 238 others were still waiting for their Covid-19 test results.

Dr Sim, who is a key member of the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), also said that on top of the medical and epidemiological investigations into the cluster, there would also be security investigations.

"If any breach of SOP or law, relevant officers must be disciplined and face the law! Unfortunately this may be the only way to learn the previous lessons,” he said.

The Tembok Sri Aman Cluster is the second major outbreak in a government detention centre.

On March 18, SDMC announced a cluster involving the Semuja Immigration Detention Depot for illegal immigrants in Serian, which had 99 cases. It peaked on March 28, contributing 191 cases to the state’s total of 426 cases for that day, which remains Sarawak’s highest single day tally.

Meanwhile, Dr Sim pointed out that since the start of this year, there had been 59 clusters in Sarawak with 7,305 positive cases and 40 deaths.

He said funerals had contributed eight clusters with 3,595 infections and 30 deaths besides other social events like weddings and festivals that led to 32 clusters with 1,928 cases and five deaths.

 "Happy occasions ended in grief. Grieving occasions ended in more sorrow. No more social gatherings (funeral must be with the SOP and limited numbers at any one time) as above is allow in red and orange zones. You, I and together we can make a difference,” said Dr Sim.

The Health Ministry classifies districts with no Covid-19 cases as green zones; one to 20 cases in a  two-week period as yellow zones, 21 to 40 cases as orange zones and 41 and above as red zones. — Borneo Post Online