KUCHING, June 24 — A Sarawakian woman who tested positive for Covid-19 after returning home to Miri is being investigated under the State Protection of Public Health Ordinance 1999 for failing to disclose her recent travel to Tunisia.
Sarawak Disaster Management Committee chairman Datuk Douglas Uggah said the woman returned from Tunisia on June 20 and made a transit in the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) before landing in Miri the next day.
“Regrettably, her E-Health declaration form does not indicate that she has been travelling to Tunisia recently.
“Though one of the columns of the E-Health declaration for a person to declare/disclose that he or she has been out of the country in the past 30 days, she failed to declare.
“Therefore, when she arrived in Miri, she was treated as a returning Sarawakian from Kuala Lumpur to Miri and therefore she was not subject to any quarantine requirements — and she went home,” Uggah said today.
He said the woman had two Covid-19 tests performed on her during her transit in KLIA. The first, an RTK Antigen test returned negative, but a later PCR swab test, which takes a longer time, came back positive.
He said the woman was supposed to wait for the result of the PCR swab test, but did not and flew on to Miri instead.
He said the woman has since been admitted to Miri Hospital for treatment though she has not shown any symptoms of the virus.
He added that the district Health Department has identified her family and some flight close contacts who are also shown to be asymptomatic, but will be subject to further tests. In the meantime, they have all been ordered to home quarantine.
“This case is classified as Import Category A (from overseas). The case will be registered at the place of detection at KLIA/Selangor point of entry instead of Miri/Sarawak.
“Hence it will not appear in Miri/Sarawak case statistic reports,” he said.
