AN outbreak among cadets at the police training school (Pulapol) on Jalan Puncak Borneo, Kuching was the major contributor to the state’s record 607 new Covid-19 cases today, the state disaster management committee said.

There were also four deaths due to the Covid-19, which raised the state death toll to 128.

Chairman of the disaster committee, Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah, said cadets had failed to observe standard operating procedures (SOP) in their platoon and company boarding houses, resulting in the state’s 48th cluster: Jalan Puncak Borneo.

Uggah said the spread, in which 61 cadets tested positive, stemmed from them mixing freely and failing to practice social distancing.

Some 111 cadets and close contacts of the index case, a cadet from Perlis, have been screened to date, Uggah said.

The other 50 tested negative in the first round of screening.

As part of the SOP, the cadets have been admitted to Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching for treatment, while the remaining 50 have been sent to the low-level Covid-19 infection centre (PKRC) at Kuching Youth Centre to be kept in isolation until their second test in 10 days.

The index case, who arrived in Sarawak on November 22, came down with a fever on Thursday.

Screening at Sentosa Health Clinic in Kota Sentosa showed that he had contracted Covid-19.

The outbreak at the training school raised Kuching’s cases to 106, but it still trails Bintulu which reported 130 cases today.

Sibu is the other district with three-digit cases (106).

Other districts reporting cases are Mukah (52), Miri (49), Kapit (33), Meradong (29), Saratok (23), Samarahan and Sarikei (14 each), Betong, Bukit Mabong, Selangau and Subis (eight each), Dalat (five), Kanowit and Matu (three each), Julau, Serian and Sri Aman (two each), and Asajaya and Beluru (one each).

Meanwhile, the disaster management committee has relaxed the operating hours of food businesses during the fasting month from 10pm to midnight.

For premises with food and entertainment, only the food business is allowed until midnight, while the entertainment segment must still stop at 10pm. – April 13, 2021.