A health worker tests swab samples for Covid-19. — Bernama photo
KUCHING (Aug 13): Sarawak must continue with Covid-19 tracing and testing as the state remains at the containment stage, said State Disaster Management Committee advisor Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
He said without tracing and testing, the number of daily cases reported would definitely go down but detection needs to go on to enable the authorities to act quickly.
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“Sarawak should continue to do PCR tests on as many as possible — early detection, early treatment. Of course with no PCR testing, numbers will definitely come down.
“Rather to have high numbers now so that every one of us can do something, play our role, and do our part rather than not testing enough and blissfully ignorant, which eventually may create a situation where because of sheer numbers, leads to increase in deaths,” he said in a Facebook post last night.
The Local Government and Housing Minister pointed out that greater Kuching accounted for 85 per cent of the cases in the state.
According to him, this reflects very typical Delta variant transmissions among the local community, given that the variant is more infectious and can be aerosolised.
He said 202 of the total 618 cases reported in Kuching yesterday were linked to family clusters, while 59 cases were connected to workplace clusters and 50 cases to social clusters.
“A total of 108 cases are related to an active case detection (ACD), while 25 cases were symptomatic during testing.
“As many as 277 cases have been fully vaccinated and 51 others have received their first dose of vaccine, while 174 other individuals are not eligible for vaccination,” he said.
He added 373 cases were detected through close contact tracing in 194 locations throughout the division.
In Serian, Dr Sim said 124 of the total 223 cases reported in the division were detected through close contact tracing in 41 locations.
“While 72 cases are related to ACD, 32 others were symptomatic during tracing,” he said.
He revealed 67 of the total 77 cases reported in Samarahan were detected through close contact tracing in 32 locations.
He added that 24 cases were linked to ACD, while six others were symptomatic during testing.