THERE will be no mass closure of schools in Sarawak despite the state registering a high number of new daily cases, said State Disaster Management Committee chairman Douglas Uggah.

He said any closure will be selective and the decision on which schools would be closed could be announced tomorrow or Monday at the latest.

He said the disaster committee, on the recommendations made jointly by the respective divisional disaster committees and district education departments, had submitted the list of schools that should be closed to the state education department for a decision.

“We have submitted to them the number of schools (to be closed). We are waiting for their decision,” he said when responding to a question at his media conference on the pandemic in the state today.

There have been a chorus of calls from concerned parents about the safety of their children amid reports of infections detected in schools.

Today, 101 cases were detected in a secondary school in Ulu Balingian in central Sarawak and 20 in a religious primary school in Sibu.

Yesterday, there were 99 cases reported in a Mukah polytechnic.

Uggah said there is no reason to close schools in the green area. – April 17, 2021.