A COVID-19 outbreak within a family has been reported in Kuching, the state’s disaster management committee announced today.

The Sarawak Health Department has named the cluster the Baki cluster and to date, five members of the family have been found infected, including the index case.

The index case is a technician working for a contractor to a government hospital in Kuching who was tested positive for the infection last Saturday.

The disaster management committee said the four members of the family tested positive were among the 68 people who were screened for having been in close contact with the technician.

One was found positive on Thursday, the other three yesterday.

All the victims who tested positive yesterday were women.

One is a co-worker of the technician in the hospital, the second is a dishwasher at a mall in the city, while the third is a cook at the hospital.

All have been warded at the isolation unit of the Sarawak general hospital for treatment.

The disaster management committee had stated that the outbreak in the cluster is “under control as it only affects close members of the family”.

It said an active case detection (ACD) drive to identify people who had come in close physical contact with the members of the family will start tomorrow and had advised for those called up by the health department to be screened to give their fullest cooperation.

The three from the Baki cluster were among eight cases detected in the state today.

Most were local transmissions. – October 24, 2020.