SARAWAK health authorities raised their Covid-19 alert after six local transmissions were detected – three in Kuching district and three in the central Sarawak town of Meradong – in the last 24 hours.

While they are aware of the source of the Meradong transmission, they have yet to determine the Kuching transmission.

In a statement, the state disaster management committee said the state’s 1,118th Covid-19 patient, a male, tested positive at a private hospital yesterday.

He took the test after complaining of fever and cough since Tuesday.

The disaster committee said the man, who works in the telecommunication industry in Kuching, had earlier sought treatment for his cough and fever at a private clinic.

When he did not get better, he went to the private hospital for treatment.

His live-in female partner, who similarly complained of cough yesterday took the test at the same hospital as him.

One of his friends whom he had come into close contact with recently was similarly infected, the committee reported.

The man, a sales executive, went for the Covid-19 test yesterday after experiencing fever and cough.

All have been warded into the isolation unit of the Sarawak general hospital in Kuching.

The disaster committee said the infections were categorised as local transmissions as all three have not travelled outside the state.

In the Meradong transmission, the three detected today were the result of an ongoing active detection drive. 

They were all family members of the index case, who recently returned from a high-risk area.

The index case was ordered to undergo home quarantine after returning from Kuala Lumpur on December 19.

Of the three, two showed symptoms of the infection.

The disaster committee also announced the recovery movement-control order (RMCO) in the state has been extended by another three months to March 31 in line with a similar decision by the federal government for the peninsula.

It said all the current standard operating procedure and health guidelines that are currently in place are similarly extended.

They include the mandatory 10-day quarantine and two Covid-19 tests while in isolation. – January 1, 2021.