A MAN, 69, with no history of close contact with any known Covid-19 positive case, is the latest to die from the virus in Sarawak.

The death, at 2.21am today at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), raises the total number of fatalities in the state to 15. It is the first death after a week of no fatalities in Sarawak.

The last death was on April 12 – that of a 47-year-old woman, also in Kuching.

State Disaster Management Committee chairman Douglas Uggah, in his daily Covid-19 briefing today, said the man fell ill on April 3 and was admitted to SGH on April 7.

Tests showed he was positive for the coronavirus.

Uggah also said the man had comorbidity, or underlying illnesses.

The three main clusters responsible for the spread of the infection in the state are the now renamed Kuching Conference cluster (formerly called the church cluster) that had infected 139 people, the tabligh cluster (95) and the “RK family” cluster (59), also known as the Italy cluster, after the index case the returned from the country with the virus.

Uggah said there are another 17 sub-clusters that had infected 57 people, three smaller clusters whose origin the Health Department has yet to determine and that had infected 10 people.

Pinpointing the index case for another 76 infections is still under investigation, he added.

Also today, 22 new positive cases were detected, in the state, bringing the total number of cases in Sarawak to 436.

All 22 have been warded in SGH.

Uggah said 20 people have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.

To date, a total of 88 people in the state have recovered from the virus. – April 21, 2020.