KUCHING district is the only area in Sarawak left in the Covid-19 red zone after the adjacent district of Samarahan had moved out into the yellow zone.

Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas, in his pandemic report to the state assembly today, said while Samarahan joins seven other districts – Tebedu, Lundu, Sibu, Bau, Serian, Bintulu and Limbang – in the yellow zone, Miri is now a green zone.

He said 31 of the state’s 40 districts are now categorised as green zones.

The Covid-19 pandemic had infected 543 people in the state, resulting in 17 deaths.

Uggah also said there are currently 166 active cases in the state, with the majority being treated at the Sarawak general hospital in Kuching.

He told the legislature that the state Disaster Management Committee, which he chairs, had decided to allow economic activities to be opened gradually beginning tomorrow because the state had met all six criteria set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for reopening the economy.

While he acknowledged “there is still much to be done”, he said a balance must be struck between society’s health and the impact of the pandemic to the state’s economy.

The WHO criteria are that transmission is under control, additional capacity in the health system is in place to trace, minimise, treat and isolate outbreak risks in special settings like nursing homes, preventive measures are in place, manage importation risks and engage with the community on the new norm.

“The transmission is controlled. Sarawak has managed to reduce its weekly incidence rate from 2.43 per 100,000 population at week 17 to 1.38 on week 18.”

Uggah said today, in week 19, the transmission rate is only 0.78 per 100,000 people when compared to the national weekly incidence of 1.32.

He also said Sarawak can cope with the pandemic as the MCO had brought down the number of contacts per case.

“We are also doing active case detection and taking further steps to improve the contact tracing and testing process.”

With the ban on foreigners entering the state and quarantining all Sarawakians returning from overseas for 14 days, Uggah said the risk of importing the virus is managed.

On the decision to reopen the economy, well after the peninsula relaxed restrictions, he said all sectors of Sarawak’s economy have been heavily affected by the movement-control order to curb Covid-19.

The study, conducted during MCO phase 3, focused on six areas – business, agriculture, self-employed workers, education, social welfare and health.

He said the hardest hit sectors are the businesses and employment sectors.

“Sarawak has been on the right track. We have witnessed our cases peak and gradually observed the flattening of the curve.

“Our positive cases maintained in single digits these couple of days. The number of districts turning green has increased.”

But Uggah warned of being complacent.

He said until the Covid-19 vaccine is found, “there is not much reason for us to believe and expect that this pandemic will come to a quick and decisive end”.

He also warned of a reversed wave like what is occurring in Singapore. – May 11, 2020.