KUCHING, Aug 25 — Four Covid-19 clusters officially ended today after no new Covid-19 cases were reported within 28 days from the date the last case was reported, said the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC).
The clusters are the Kuching Engineering Company Cluster, Sentosa Cluster, Melbourne PUI Cluster and Satok Market Cluster.
The clusters that remain active are the Mambong Cluster with seven cases and Alam Cluster (7), said SDMC in a statement today.
Meanwhile, zero positive Covid-19 cases were reported in Sarawak, making the total cumulative tally of positive cases in the state remain at 696 cases.
“The Kuching Engineering Company Cluster was detected on July 18 involving eight Covid-19 cases which were confirmed by the lab.
“In short, the cluster was first detected when its index case (Case 575) was admitted to the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) after suffering from chest pain and dry cough. Preliminary screening of Covid-19 on July 7 found that the patient tested positive in the RTK Antibody Test (IgM Positive and IgG Negative).
“Further investigation of lab tests found that the patient’s rT-PCR Covid-19 test turned up positive on July 9,” it said.
Following the report of this case, it said all close contacts of the patient were instructed to undergo Covid-19 screening where seven more cases comprising five colleagues of Case 575 and two close contacts of Case 631 were detected.
“Overall, a total of 495 individuals comprising colleagues and close contacts of the cases have been identified and the screening results successfully detected eight Covid-19 case.”
It said that the last case was detected on July 28 and have since recovered and was discharged from the hospital on August 8.
It also said that of the eight cases detected, only two cases showed early signs and symptoms of Covid-19.
“No cases were admitted to the intensive care unit nor deaths were reported from this cluster,” it added.
On the Sentosa Cluster which was detected on July 21, SDMC said the cluster involving a health facility in Kuching resulted in 31 positive Covid-19 cases.
“This cluster was first detected when its index case (Case 602) went for Covid-19 self-screening on July 18 at a private health facility in Kuching on July 18 as the patient had wanted to travel to Penang.
“The lab test results found that the patient tested positive for Covid-19 on the same day,” it said, noting that all healthcare workers and patients at the health facility as well as close contacts of the patient were instructed to undergo Covid-19 screening following the report of this case.
The screening results then successfully detected another 30 positive Covid-19 cases.
“In total, 518 individuals comprising healthcare workers, general workers and close contacts of the cases were identified and the screening results detected 31 Covid-19 cases,” said the committee, adding that the last case, which was detected on July 28 has since recovered and was discharged from the hospital on August 9.
It said of the 31 cases, only one showed early signs and symptoms of Covid-19 and that there were no fatalities nor patients who were admitted to the intensive care unit from this cluster.
The third cluster which officially ended involved the Melbourne PUI Cluster which was detected on July 22 and resulted in three positive Covid-19 cases.
“The index case from this cluster was a local student (Case 587) who tested positive at the hotel quarantine centre on July 17. The patient had returned from Melbourne, Australia on July 15 via transit in Kuala Lumpur before arriving in Kuching.
“Active in-flight contact tracing was carried out which resulted in two positive Covid-19 cases being detected of which these two cases had boarded the same plane from Kuala Lumpur and arrived at Kuching International Airport (KIA),” said the committee.
It said overall, 114 individuals comprising aircraft contacts and close contacts of the identified cases were screened which resulted in the successful detection of three positive Covid-19 cases.
“The last case was detected on July 28 and the patient has since recovered and was discharged from the hospital on August 7,” it said, adding that all cases from this cluster were asymptomatic.
As for Satok Market Cluster, SDMC said the cluster, which was first detected on July 28, resulted in four positive Covid-19 cases.
“This cluster was first detected when the State Health Department conducted active screening at Satok Market following the report of Covid-19 cases at Stutong Market. this was a case-targeted screening activating on a big market which was conducted by the department in collaboration with all agencies under SDMC.
“On July 25 and 236, the department conducted the screening activities involving 229 traders and general workers from the market and as a result, four positive cases were found on July 28.
“On July 29, Satok Market was instructed to close for 14 days for disinfection to break the Covid-19 chain of infection,” it said.
It added that overall, a total of 936 traders and close contacts were identified and of the four positive Covid-19 cases detected, all were asymptomatic.
Meanwhile, SDMC said that the state reported zero new positive Covid-19 cases today making the total cumulative tally of positive cases in the state to remain at 696 cases.
It also said there were no Covid-19 patients who had recovered or discharged from hospitals today.
“The total number of recoveries remain at 662 which accounts for 95.11 per cent out of the overall cases,” it added.
It said 15 cases are still being treated at hospitals throughout the state of which nine are being treated at Bintulu Hospital, four at SGH and one at Sibu Hospital and Miri Hospital respectively.
On the number of persons under investigation (PUI), the committee said 19 new cases were recorded today while two cases were still pending lab test results.
Since the first positive Covid-19 case was reported on March 13, the state has recorded a total of 19 deaths. — Borneo Post
