SARAWAK has ordered an immediate ban on all social gatherings and assemblies after 203 new Covid-19 infections were reported in the past 24 hours with the bulk of them in Sibu.

The state disaster management committee said there were 120 new cases reported in Sibu with 78 from the Pasai cluster.

The Pasai cluster is the state’s largest and most active with infections linked to it detected as far as Kuching.

Two of the 12 new cases detected in Kuching today were linked to the cluster.

Eight were detected in the small rural town of Betong, four of the five cases detected in Bintulu were from the cluster, all three detected in Dalat and the sole case in Kapit were also blamed on the cluster.

The disaster committee said it has instructed its sub-committees at divisional and district levels to monitor all activities in their areas of jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, the Kanowit district on the banks of the Rajang River was also turned into a red zone today when 43 cases, linked to the Pasai cluster, were detected.

The district had recorded 73 infections in 14 days with the majority linked to the Pasai cluster.

The situation is also deteriorating in the coastal district of Dalat which has gone from yellow zone to orange with 22 cases in two weeks.

Elsewhere, Serian and Pakan districts have lost their status as safe zones as their one case of local infection recorded today saw them slip out of the green to the yellow zone.

The number of districts in the red zone has gone up to five – Kanowit, Beluru, Miri, Sibu and Kuching.

Two are in the orange zone – Dalat and Sebauh – 18 in the yellow and 15 in the green.

In the Ministry of Health four-stage colour code, a red zone will have recorded over 41 cases in a two-week period, orange (21-40), yellow (1-20) and the safe green zone, zero infection.

The pandemic has infected 2, 570 people in the state, killing 21. – January 20, 2021.