A WHOPPING nine Covid-19 clusters linked to 273 cases make up more than half of the 450 new cases reported in Sarawak today.

The number of new cases, however, is a slight dip from the 582 cases logged yesterday.

Kuching, where the Delta variant is now reported to be the predominant strain, reported 191 new cases – again a drop from yesterday’s 311 cases.

The state disaster management committee said the community clusters are in the villages of Bunga Rampai in Bau; Paon Rimu, Cina, Kemayau, Riih Daso and Sg Duuh in Serian; Sg Sangan in Tatau; Peligong in Saratok; and Tanjung Tuang in Samarahan.

The two work clusters detected are in an oil palm plantation at Melikin on the Serian-Sri Aman stretch of the Pan Borneo highway and in a factory at the Kemena Land District (KINDA) in Tanjung Kidurong, Bintulu.

The factory was already ordered to be locked down under the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) when the first case was reported, the disaster committee said in its daily Covid-19 report.

Of the two workplace clusters, the one at the Melikin oil palm plantation has the highest number of cases, 46, while KINDA Km18 in Tatau has 10.

The disaster committee said 157 workers in the Melikin cluster, their families and people they have been in contact with were screened while in the KINDA Km18 cluster 85 people were screened.

The disaster committee said the results for 75 people have yet to be released.

For the sixth straight day, there were no deaths reported.

State Minister of Housing and Local Government, Dr Sim Kui Hian, had earlier stated many of the infections in the state are in category 1 (no symptoms) and category 2 (mild symptoms).

Sim, an advisor to the disaster committee, attributed the mild infections to the state’s aggressive vaccination drive.

He said with 82.5% of the state’s adult population already vaccinated with the first dose of the Covid vaccine and 60.1% completing the two doses, the level of herd immunity in Sarawak is “similar to that in the UK”.

That, Sim said, explained the drop in Sarawak’s death rate, in the category 5 infection (ICU intubated on ventilator), category 4 (requiring oxygen) and category 3 (X-ray changes of the lung) cases,” he said. – July 30, 2021.