THE Sarawak disaster management committee is unsure if the Covid-19 strain in the Pasai cluster is a mutation but admitted today that it is highly infectious.

“One day, we’ll have the experts explain to us (the virus strain),” said committee chairman Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah at a media conference today.

Three deaths were reported in the Pasai cluster today. The three were all male and aged 59, 76 and 91.

This takes the number of deaths in the cluster to six.

In the last 24 hours, 108 new cases were logged in connection with the cluster, which source is a funeral at at Pasai Siong longhouse late last month.

The index case is a woman who had travelled from Johor to attend her father’s funeral. She breacher the home quarantine order, leading to a spate of infections, which now number 1,528 in total.

Of this, 1,193 are active cases, 10 of whom are in intensive care.

More than 16,500 people linked to the cluster have been screened, which left the test labs overwhelmed. More than 1,200 people are still awaiting their test results after three days.

The Pasai cluster continue to report new cases going into its fourth week.

Of the 51 new cases detected in Sibu today, 29 are linked to the cluster while the 41 new cases in the nearby town of Kanowit are also from the cluster.

Cases linked to the cluster have also been detected in Miri (10), Dalat (22), Kapit (3), Julau (4), Sarikei (1) and Betong (2 ).

State Health Department director Dr Rosemawati Ariffin said it was important to note that the people in the cluster who have died of the infection had underlying chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and asthma. – January 26, 2021.