THE country’s youngest Covid-19 victim, a 23-year-old Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) student who died yesterday, could have been saved if she had sought treatment early, state Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Abdul Karim Hamzah said.

Karim said the final-year computer science and information technology student should have gone for the Covid-19 tests when both her parents were tested positive.

He said the student was referred “at a late stage”.

Karim is now the now Sarawak’s point man in the Covid-19 pandemic after he was appointed the state Disaster and Management Committee’s spokesman for its daily briefing.

The victim’s parents reportedly were tested positive for the virus on March 26 but she did not go for a test until she complained of breathing difficulties on March 30.

The state Disaster Management Committee yesterday stated she was admitted to Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching on the same day but died at 9.42am yesterday.

Yesterday too, Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in his daily briefing, stated the female student had an underlying medical problem - which Karim described as a “thyroid problem” – and was infected by cases “2469” and “2470” – her parents.

Dr Noor Hisham said the infection she and her parents got was from the church cluster and they were already the fifth generation of the cluster.

A Facebook posting announcing her death described the student as someone who is dedicated to her studies, soft spoken and likes to help fellow students.

“Among her lecturers and friends, she was a very friendly person with a constant smile,” the posting stated.

Besides her parents who are still in SGH, the student’s three other sisters and her maternal grandmother all reportedly tested positive for the virus that has killed 13 people in the state to date.

Shuhor Ahmad of Masjid Ar-Riyadh in Taman Samarindah, Kota Samarahan, in his Facebook posting calling for attendance to a “hajat” prayer, stated one of the sisters had been warded into the intensive care unit (ICU).

According to a circular by the assistant education officer of the Samarahan district education office, the student’s father is a 6th form teacher and tested positive on March 26.

The circular also stated her mother also tested positive on March 26.

The circular, to give “an update of the latest situation in the school”, stated the school principal and one other teacher also tested positive and have been admitted to SGH.

The principal was found positive with the virus on March 24 while the other male teacher was infected on March 26.

The school’s senior assistant has been ordered into quarantine at the multipurpose youth centre at Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce.

The centre is also a Covid-19 screening centre.

Karim also sought to reassure parents of students who are holed up in the Unimas campus, saying the infection that killed the state’s 13th victim was not contracted from anyone within the campus.

“She got it from outside. She lived with her parents,” Karim said.

“All the parents need not worry.”

The fears were first heightened when a 41-year-old Indonesian national and a music lecturer at the university’s faculty of applied and creative arts succumbed to the virus on March 31.

Karim said the lecturer, who the Indonesia news portal Anatara, identified as Iran Amri Musoddiq, also contracted his infection outside the campus.

He said the lecturer’s infection was from a contact with the tabligh cluster. – April 10, 2020.