Photo of laboratory testing for illustration purposes only.
KUCHING (July 14): The Health Department has been directed to throughly investigate Covid-19 cases under the Sentosa 2 Cluster for fear of the presence of the Delta variant.
State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian said in a Facebook post last night that apart from the routine epidemiological investigation, the department should also indicate how many Hospital Sentosa staff and residents have been vaccinated.
He said as the staff are front-liners they should have been among the earliest to be fully vaccinated during Phase 1 of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
Dr Sim also called on the department to indicate what vaccines were administered to the staff and their close contacts, as well as how long ago they were vaccinated.
“Also to work closely with Unimas (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) on the genomics study (in regard to the Sentosa 2 Cluster) because unlike PCR results, which come on the same day, genomics study takes about one and a half to two weeks for the results to come out,” he explained.
The Local Government and Housing Minister was referring to Unimas’ Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM).
Dr Sim said he was not resorting to finger-pointing but wanted results from the investigation of the cluster so that SDMC could start making necessary preparations and planning actions for policy-making.
“We pray for everyone in Cluster Sentosa. This would be the second time Hospital Sentosa was hit by a Covid-19 outbreak and I understand lockdown was imposed with all the staff and additional shift staff, and patients quarantined for 14 days,” he said.
SDMC chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and state Health director Datuk Dr Mohamed Sapian Mohamed had stated yesterday no Delta variant had been detected at Hospital Sentosa so far.
On Monday, Unimas IHCM director Prof Dr David Perera told The Borneo Post that it could take up to four weeks to complete tests for the Delta variant.
The institute has been tasked by SDMC to track Covid-19 variants circulating in the state.
Up to July 4, a total of 17 Delta variant cases had been recorded in Kuching, with the first case detected on June 18.
The Delta variant was first detected in India.
It has outpaced other variants in both the United Kingdom and United States, where a high vaccination percentage has been achieved among their adult populations.