THE Pasai cluster in Sibu, Sarawak continues to grow as the state’s most infectious with 92 new Covid-19 cases detected in the last 24 hours.

They easily make up the bulk of the state’s 166 new cases reported by the state disaster management committee today.

The committee said in their contact tracing of people exposed to the infection, there were 88 new cases in the epicentre of the cluster, three in Miri and one as far as remote Belaga, the last town in the upper reaches of Sg Rajang. 

The 92 new cases now bring the total number of infections in the cluster to 284.

The committee said to date, 1,245 persons have been screened with 850 found to be negative for the virus. 

The number of infections could still rise as the test results for another 111 is still pending.

The index case of the cluster is a woman, designated as case 1175, who returned home on December 29 to attend her father’s funeral.

It was reported she had taken a Firefly flight from Johor Baru to Kuala Lumpur to catch a connecting Malaysia Airlines flight to Kuching. 

From Kuching, she then took an AirAsia flight to Sibu. 

She had to take the 12-hour circuitous flight as a result of disruptions in normal schedule and scarcity of flights due to the restrictions the state had imposed on airlines. 

As there were no quarantine facilities in Sibu, she was allowed to undergo home quarantine at her longhouse, a decision that triggered the outbreak in that area of Sibu which the cluster is named.

A week after her arrival on January 5, she took her second Covid-19 test at Lanang health clinic and the result returned positive the next day.

The committee that January 6 night ordered an immediate lockdown of her longhouse and seven surrounding longhouses. 

The next day, the state Health Department conducted a screening of 74 residents of Rumah Langi and found 37 positive. 

Last Tuesday, Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah apologised to the people of Sarawak for the error of judgment in allowing incoming passengers in Sibu to be quarantined at home. 

A similar home quarantine order for a passenger who flew into Sibu from the peninsula spawned the Mador cluster in the town of Meradong, some 30km from Sibu. 

Currently, there are seven active clusters in the state. Apart from Pasai and Mador, the other five are the Bukit Sekubong cluster in Sebauh that was declared yesterday; Jelita and Bah Sayap, in Miri; as well as Keranji Tabuan and Stutong in Kuching. – January 13, 2021.