SARAWAK has cancelled the policy of allowing people who have returned from high-risk areas to quarantine at home while waiting to be tested for the coronavirus.

Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah said this after it was found that two new virus clusters had resulted from the failure of people to observe the health protocols while isolating at home.

“We will not allow home quarantine. It’s very dangerous,” Uggah, who chairs the state disaster management committee, said in a press conference in Petrajaya today.

Uggah pointed to the Mador cluster as an example how a home quarantine order could spread the virus.

Eight people, including the index case, so far have been infected in the Mador cluster.

The index case tested positive on December 30, several days after returning from the peninsula.

Uggah said the man was ordered to quarantine at home in his longhouse in Meradong, about 40km from Sibu, when he landed in Sibu before Christmas.

“We expected him to observe the home quarantine.”

Instead, he hosted a Christmas open house, said Uggah.

In the contact tracing that ensued, 1,230 individuals were screened.

So far, eight have been found to be infected. More than 300 have been cleared while the rest are waiting the results.

Starting tomorrow also, the state government will make a public list of the places infected people had visited in the 14 days before the infection was detected.

Uggah said the prior practice was just a general announcement of the locations without providing the details such as the day and time of the visits.

Uggah said the state was learning from Singapore, which disclosed such detailed information to inform the public of their risk of infection.

“If they were at the same place and same time as the infected person, we hope these people will go for tests so they will know if they are also infected.

State Health Department director Dr Chin Zin Hing said in such a situation, people who log their locations with the MySejahtera app will be notified by messages to go to the nearest clinic.– January 5, 2021.