THERE were 21 new Covid-19 cases from a longhouse cluster in Betong today, which meant the district was once again declared a red zone, the 22nd such zone in Sarawak.

In its daily briefing, the state disaster management committee said the new cases at two longhouses at Lempaong Spak, Betong, meant the district had accumulated 51 infections in the past 14 days, 10 more than the 41-case threshold.

The Ministry of Health colour code system classifies an area red when it has more than 41 Covid-19 cases in a two-week period, orange for 21-40 cases, yellow for one to 19 cases and green for no cases.

Currently, of the remaining 18 districts in the state, three are in the orange zone, 13 in yellow and only two in the green zone.

To date, 55 residents of the two longhouses and close contacts been screened with 31 testing positive in an earlier round, 21 today and one result still pending.

The Lempaong Spak cluster is one of two clusters the state declared today. The other is also a longhouse cluster at Bukit Tinggi in Meradong.

The longhouse had been subject to the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) previously, when two positive cases were detected.

In the follow up active case detection, a further 19 residents were tested positive for the virus.

Ninety-five new infections from 13 of Sarawak’s 96 active clusters – including 29 from the Sentosa2 cluster in Kuching – contributed to 423 new infections reported today.

The Sentosa cluster is at the hospital with the same name in Kota Sentosa bazaar, about 10km from Kuching.

There were no Covid-19 deaths reported in the state today. – July 16, 2021.