HOSPITAL Sentosa on the outskirts of Kuching was locked down today after eight more of its staff members were found to be infected with Covid-19.

The new cases take the total number of workers infected at the hospital to 16. 

The 16 cases have been transferred to the Sarawak General Hospital to be placed in isolation and treatment.

Everyone at the hospital, from the doctors down to the non-medical supporting staff, have been barred from leaving the hospital even when they are off duty.

The eight new cases were among the nine that were detected in the state today.

State disaster management committee chairman Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah said the lockdown meant the hospital staff would serve their 14 days of quarantine in the hospital.

He said the staff would take their second test on day 13 of the quarantine and if they tested negative, they would be released and allowed to return to work.

The hospital, now known as the Sentosa cluster, no longer accepts admissions and visitors are likewise barred.

Uggah said the eight new cases at the hospital were aged between 30 and 48. All did not show symptoms of infection when they were tested.

The first case in the cluster was detected on July 19.

Uggah said 643 of the hospital employees had been screened.

State health director Dr Chin Zin Hing today said the outbreak at the hospital was not due to failure to comply with health and safety guidelines or mismanagement.

Dr Chin said the index case had acquired the infection from outside the hospital.

The state’s ninth other positive case today was a female student who had returned from Perth, Australia.

Uggah said she was not tested at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport while in transit because she had taken a test on July 17 prior to her flight home.

Her test results were negative.

But in keeping with the state’s regulations for Sarawakians returning from abroad, she was quarantined in a hotel on arrival in Kuching on July 18.

She was tested for the virus the next day and test results yesterday her to be infected.

Uggah said in view of the rising number of infections in the Kuching and Samarahan districts, he strongly discouraged people in the two districts from travelling to areas in the green zones.

He said this was not a ban but “just an advisory.”

Kuching is in the yellow zone but it could go into the red as the 38 cases it reported in the last 14 days is only two short of the 40 needed to make the cross. –, July 24, 2020.