KUCHING, July 26 — The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) is stepping up its action to contain its Covid-19 infection rate in the wake of an upward trend in new cases statewide.
Its chairman Datuk Douglas Uggah said the state Health Department is intensifying active detection in the Kota Sentosa area following the emergence of 21 Covid-19 positive cases traced from the Hospital Sentosa cluster to date.
He said SDMC ordered the hospital closed to the public today and all its staff to be screened for the coronavirus.
“SDMC will announce other strategies after they have been refined,” he said in a statement after a special meeting chaired by Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Abang Johari Openg.
Uggah also announced the SDMC will be restricting inter-district travel, flights to and from Sarawak and the operating hours for businesses.
He also said Malaysians from the peninsula, Sabah and Labuan entering Sarawak will have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine at designated premises effective from August 1 to 14.
He said the travellers will undergo a PCR test for Covid-19 on the second day of the quarantine and will be released if the results are negative.
He said the current quarantine policy on Sarawakians returning from overseas remains unchanged.
Uggah, who is also the deputy chief minister, said the re-opening of Politeknik Kuching in Matang for the June session has been postponed to a later date yet to be announced.
The postponement will affect 825 students for the first semester and 3,538 for the senior students (semester two to five).
Uggah said Kuching district now has 38 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases and 14 imported cases.
He said two have since recovered after treatment at the Sarawak General Hospital.
Samarahan district has 12 locally transmitted cases and two imported cases.
