DUE to a spike in Covid-19 cases in Kuching, 138 schools in the districts nearest to the city, including Semarahan, will not be reopening tomorrow as planned.

Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah said the schools in the three districts closest to Kuching will instead open on August 3.

Uggah, who chairs the state disaster management committee for the coronavirus outbreak in the state, said the decision was made on the advice of the Health Department, the State Security Council and the state Education Department. 

Schools that are in the green zones of the two divisions and elsewhere in the state will reopen as scheduled tomorrow. 

Uggah said 87 schools in the two Kuching districts – Kuching and Padawan – and only three schools in the Samarahan district in the division with the same name, are affected by decision to delay reopening.

Students in transition classes, Forms 1 to 5, Lower 6 and pupils in Primary 5 and 6 were to have returned to school tomorrow. 

Since last week, five infections have been detected among two new clusters in Kuching, resulting in one death – that of a 72 year-old man with underlying health problems. 

The two Kuching clusters are an engineering firm where a female draughtsman was detected with the infection on July 10 and a construction site.

Uggah said “more than  a hundred people” who had come into contact with the five infected people have been asked to undergo a swab test for the virus.

He also appealed to those who have had contact with the victims but have not been called up to contact health authorities. 

Uggah said the source of the infection has yet to be identified.

“I hope in the next few days, they are able to indicate the possible source of infection. 

“So at the moment, it is considered a community-based infection. “

Appealing to Sarawakians to religiously comply with all the health safety protocols, Uggah reminded them “the virus is still around”. – July 14, 2020. =

“We have not won the war yet,” he said. – July 14, 2020.