THERE were 261 new Covid-19 cases reported in Sarawak today, down from 351 cases logged yesterday, says the state disaster management committee.

A total 109 cases, linked to the three new clusters reported today, make up almost half the number of new Covid-19 cases detected in Sarawak in the last 24 hours.

The committee reported one workplace cluster at the Demak Laut industrial estate, where 186 workers of a transportation company, their family members and close contacts were screened by the health department. Twenty-nine individuals tested positive for Covid-19.

There were two community clusters reported today. One at Kg Melayu Balai Ringin in Serian and another at a longhouse at Sg Sebatu in Meradong district.

In the Kg Melayu Balai Ringin cluster, 48 out of the 112 residents who were screened tested positive, while another 32 residents of the Sg Sebatu longhouse were found to be positive with the virus, the disaster committee said.

The longhouse was earlier ordered into a full lockdown after one positive case was detected there.

Another five of Sarawak’s 93 active clusters reported a total of 42 new cases today with the Kg Kendaie cluster reporting 14 cases, Benteng Sri Aman (13), Sentosa2 another eight to bring the total at the Sentosa hospital to 137 , Bedup Longgo (4) and Kem Semuja (3).

Reflecting the improving situation in the state, the Song district moved out of the orange zone and into the yellow zone after recording only 13 new cases in the last 14 days.

As of today, there are only 19 districts still in the red zone, three in the orange zone, 14 in the yellow zone and four in the green zone.

The coloured zones denote the infection rate of a district with those registering more than 40 cases in a two-week period in red, 21 to 40 in orange, zero to 19 in yellow and green having no cases at all.

There was one death reported today, that of a 58-year-old Serian man who died in the Sarawak general hospital in Kuching. – July 21, 2021.