KUCHING’S urban Malay village of Kg Tabuan and its surrounding areas have been placed under a partial lockdown as the authorities trace close contacts of a Covid-19 victim.

The Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (DMC) today barred movement out of Kg Tabuan and adjacent villages to enable the Health Department to trace those who had come into contact with a 72-year-old man who succumbed to the coronavirus yesterday.

The victim, from the nearby Kg Tabuan Lot, died while undergoing treatment at Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), becoming the state’s 17th virus fatality.

Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas has defined Sarawak’s partial lockdown as a level between the movement-control order (MCO) and enhanced MCO.

Under the partial lockdown, residents are barred from leaving the affected areas, but are free to move within.

Two residential estates in Samarahan, namely Taman Desa Ilmu and Uni Garden, were locked down on Monday after 20 Covid-19 cases were detected in 14 days. There have also been two deaths there.

The lockdown, initially scheduled to be lifted yesterday, has been extended by another three days.

Uggah said this is because health personnel conducting case detection have covered only 20% of the more than 5,000 homes in the two estates.

Today, Sarawak registered just two new cases, the lowest figure since March 19. Both are in Kuching district.

The state DMC, in a statement, said 33 patients have been discharged, all from SGH except for one from Miri Hospital.

The Covid-19 victim from Kg Tabuan Lot had reported suffering a fever and cough since April 13.

When he went to Sarawak Heart Centre in Kota Samarahan three days later, doctors categorised him as a severe acute respiratory infection case.

He was also tested for Covid-19, and the result from SGH came back positive on April 18.

Uggah said the man had no history of close contact with other confirmed cases. – May 1, 2020.