SARAWAK today declared a new Covid-19 cluster after four crewmen of a Port Klang-flagged oil tanker anchored off Bintulu tested positive for the disease.

The state Health Department said two Malaysians, a Filipino and an Indian national are the patients in the “Alam cluster”.

The vessel, which has a crew of 27, was on its way to Bintulu from Labuan when the captain radioed the handling agent, requesting medical assistance on arrival, as five men on board had fallen ill, said the state Disaster Management Committee (DMC).

Officers from the Bintulu Health Department boarded the tanker, where they assessed the five to be displaying early signs of Covid-19.

The sick crewmen were warded at Bintulu Hospital on Tuesday, and the rT-PCR tests for four of them returned positive for the coronavirus today.

The state DMC said the other 22 crew members, as well as the health personnel involved in transferring the five men to hospital, will be screened over the next few days.

“Early investigations showed that the source of infection was imported. It was most likely brought aboard by a crewman who had just signed on at one of the ship’s stopovers.”

The tanker was at the Japanese port of Toyama Shinko from July 27 to August 1 before it docked at Labuan port on August 10.

Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a statement, said the Alam cluster is isolated, thus it poses no risk of local transmissions.

He said the fifth sick crewman is still awaiting his test result.

“Preventive measures and disinfection work have been carried out on the ship.”

Stutong market cluster contained

The state DMC has ended contact tracing relating to the Stutong market cluster after no new infections were detected in the last 28 days.

The index patient in the cluster, one of the biggest in Sarawak, has succumbed to Covid-19.

Random testing conducted on 56 traders at the market on July 16 saw two returning positive results.

Two days later, the market was ordered shut for two weeks.

A total of 685 traders, along with their close contacts, were tested for the virus, with five found to be positive. – August 20, 2020.