A medical worker conducts Covid-19 polymerase chain reaction tests. — Bernama photo
LABUAN (Sept 9): Two new Type A Covid-19 import cases detected here on Tuesday (Sept 7) are being analysed for variants of concern (VOC).
Type A involves import cases involving foreigners while Type B are cases coming from outside Labuan but from within Malaysia.
Labuan Health Director Dr Ismuni Bohari said the two cases involved crew members of a ship whose last port of call was at a country where the Covid-19 variants of Mu and Lambda had been detected.
“One of the cases is feared can trigger high infections, we have no choice but to send the samples for analysis in in the peninsula,” he told Bernama today.
Dr Ismuni said the two cases were detected when a private healthcare team conducted Covid-19 screening on the ship on Sept 6.
He said following the detection of the two cases, all its 28 crew were asked to undergo quarantine onboard.
“The cases were detected as mandatory rapid test-polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR) tests are enforced on ship crews entering Labuan … these were the first import A cases detected after the Delta variant attacked Labuan and led to a sudden surge in cases and daily death cases,” he said.
Dr Ismuni also disclosed there had been five new import cases involving foreign ship crews detected yesterday (Sept 8), and some of them would also be sent for analysis.
Labuan completed 100 per cent immunisation against Covid-19 among its adult population on Tuesday (Sept 7).
This federal territory has entered Phase Four of the National Recovery Plan, having recorded single-digit cases daily and no new deaths for the last 35 days. The death toll in Labuan due to the pandemic remained at 149 as of today (Sept 9). — Bernama