ANOTHER member of the Bintulu family, the new source of the Covid-19 infection in Sarawak, has tested positive for the virus, state disaster management committee chairman Douglas Uggah said today.

Three of them tested positive yesterday while the source of the infection, a family member who is a student of a public institution of higher learning in Mukah, confirmed positive for the virus last Thursday.

Uggah did not disclose the relationship of the victims or give any other details.

He would only say “they are from the same family” and the new infection cluster had been named the “family cluster”. 

The latest case, which raised the number of infections in the state to 561, was detected as a result of contact tracing and tests conducted by the health department on those who had come in contact with the student. 

The student had returned home well before the movement-control order was imposed on March 18, but like all students from institutions of higher learning in the state, or had returned from the peninsula, Sabah and Labuan, the student was ordered to undergo the screening for the virus. 

The student took the test last week and was found to be positive last Thursday. 

Uggah, who is also a deputy chief minister, yesterday said since the student had received visits from relatives during the recent Raya celebration, health authorities in Mukah were ordered to trace all the people who had come in contact with the student. 

Meanwhile, Uggah said to further open up the state and its economy, the committee in its meeting today has agreed to allow all buses, including the inter-division express buses, to operate at 100% capacity as from today. 

The same goes for school buses and school vans when school reopens on June 24.

Uggah said their operation was however, dependent on their compliance of the standard operating procedure and guidelines drawn up by the state’s Transport Ministry.

The licensed gaming outlets have also been given the go-ahead to resume operations from Friday while the markets – day, night and weekend – could reopen on Saturday. 

Uggah said the committee has also agreed that Malaysian My Second Home participants who had undergone quarantine in this country and taken the Covid-19 test, will be exempted from further quarantine when they enter the state. 

On the state’s role to prevent undocumented migrants from entering the state and the transmission of Covid-19 as part of Op Benteng, Uggah said roadblocks have been mounted on popular routes Indonesian nationals are know to take in border towns and areas of Lundu, Bau, Padawan, Serian, Sri Aman and Lubok Antu.

He added that 105 security personnel had been deployed to man the roadblocks and to date, 1,137 vehicles have been inspected but they have yet to make an arrest. – June 17, 2020.