THE Sarawak Housing and Local Government Minister has appealed to Sarawakians in the peninsula not to return home to the state for the time being for fear that they could transmit the more virulent South African and Indian strains of the Covid-19 virus.

Dr Sim Hui Kian, a key member of the state disaster management committee in a post in his Facebook account, said “we (the state) beg your understanding and forgiveness” for asking them to just stay put wherever they are in the peninsula.

He said they could still overcome physical distance with modern technology.

“Let’s help to protect each other from Covid-19.”

Sim’s fear was over Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah’s disclosure yesterday that seven more Covid-19 infections, believed to have originated from the South African and Indian strains of the virus, have been detected in the country.

Noor Hisham said the seven variants of concern (VOC) cases detected by the Institute Medical Research (IMR) were from 10 samples that were collected between May 10 and 14.

Sim said researchers and infectious diseases scientists at the state health department and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) laboratories at the same time are tracking the virus genome and are on the lookout for the South African and Indian variants.

“They are on high alert for the variants.”

In another posting, Sim said that the Covid-19 deaths in the state are among “people in their prime” is a little disconcerting for him.

“Four in 10 deaths are people in their prime,” he stated in reaction to the statistics of the Health Ministry.

The statistics showed that the majority of the 161 Covid-19 deaths in Sarawak between the beginning of the year and April 30 was in the 71-80 age bracket.

There were 48 deaths in that group.

The age group with the second highest death rate, and one which Sim is concerned with, is in the 50-60 group with 33 deaths.

Between the ages of 21 to 61, the death toll was 58; 11 deaths in the 21- 40 age group, 14 in the 41-50 group.

In the older, post-retirement age groups, there were 32 deaths in the 61-70 group and 23 in the 81-100 group. – May 18, 2021.