Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian
KUCHING (Sept 7): Sarawak may need to introduce weekly Covid-19 self-testing for workers in view of the growing number of workplace clusters, said State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
In a Facebook post this morning, he said this was to ensure that the state will be able to reopen its economic sectors safely.
“Understand that five out of seven clusters today (yesterday) are workplace clusters.
“We probably will need for quick RTK AG self-tests weekly like Singapore and UK for us to reopen the business safer and more sustainably,” he said in the post dated yesterday.
He pointed out that Sarawak is currently in a ”post vaccination era” much like Singapore and the UK and as such, there is a need to focus on the social economic crisis as a result of the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic.
He said the state experienced its first wave of Covid-19 in April to May last year with a loss of 19 deaths in 2020 followed by the second wave involving the Pasai Cluster which witnessed more than 2,600 infections.
He said the third wave from April to June this year saw several days where Sarawak had recorded the highest number of cases in the country resulting in the prioritisation of Covid-19 vaccines under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK) distributed to the state in June.
“Sarawak is now experiencing the fourth wave due to the Covid-19 Delta variant,” he said, noting that the state is the first in Malaysia to experience a post-vaccination outbreak.
He said the state was able to overcome the first to third waves due to the people who came together in the spirit of solidarity and unity while remaining focused and supportive of each other.
“We shall successfully come through the fourth wave together as we did in the past,” he said.
In his post, Dr Sim also disclosed that more than 50 per cent of Covid-19 deaths recorded in Sarawak yesterday and on Sunday involved fully vaccinated individuals who had multiple co-morbidities.
The Local Government and Housing Minister said the brought-in-dead (BID) cases recorded over the two days were reported late as the cases were pending the pathologist’s findings on the cause of deaths.
“Some of the BID case was (sic) only diagnosed as Covid-19 positive after dead (sic),” he said in a Facebook post this morning.
He said it is therefore crucial that those who find themselves to have Covid-19 symptoms to get themselves checked and diagnosed at hospitals so that they can be monitored early.
Sarawak recorded its highest number of fatalities on Sunday with 15 deaths and another 12 deaths within the next 24 hours. Over the two-day period, eight were BID cases of which six were recorded yesterday.