AS Sarawak continues to grapple with the spike of Covid-19 cases in the southern tip of the state, the dine-in ban in the eight districts there that was to have ended Sunday will still be in place for another week to September 19.

This is the second extension of the ban in the state’s most populous districts of Kuching, Samarahan, Serian and in the smaller adjacent districts of Bau, Lundu, Asajaya, Simunjan and Tebedu.

Nonetheless, the state disaster management committee made some concessions by loosening some restrictions in the standard operating procedure (SOP).

The business hours of restaurants and food outlets offering take outs, that were restricted to operating from 5am to 8pm, could now open by another two hours until 10pm.

The 5am-8pm business hours of other businesses however, remain in place.

There is also some loosening in the restriction of movements with the 10pm-5am “curfew” now pushed back to midnight to 5am.

Those found in public places after midnight without a reasonable explanation could be compounded.

Sarawak reported 2,464 new cases today with Kuching district having 696 cases, Serian 229 and Samarahan 168 cases.

The state disaster committee said while the new cases were in keeping with the trend, 99.51% or 2,452 of cases were in category 1 (no symptoms) and category 2 (mild symptoms), there is however, a jump in category 3 (lung infection) and the more severe category 4 (lung infection requiring oxygen to aid in breathing), category 5 (lung infection requiring ventilator) cases.

There were two category 3 cases reported today – up by one – whereas the cases in category 4 rose from two yesterday to four today and from three yesterday to six today in category 5.

There were also another seven deaths linked to the infection reported today with four of the deaths classified as dead-on-arrival (DOA).

With the exception of a 45-year-old man from Tebedu, a district near the Sarawak-Kalimantan border, who was brought in dead to the Serian hospital on August 30, the other three were brought to the Sarawak general hospital in Kuching.

They are an 81-year-old who was dead on arrival on July 31, a 90-year-old brought in on August 29 and a 78-year-old brought in the next day on August 30.

The other three victims, whose deaths were only reported yesterday, were a 76-year-old man from Lubok Antu, a 78-year-old man from Tatau and a 74-year-old woman from Kuching.

All had co-morbidities, according to the disaster committee and their deaths bring the toll in the state to 547. – September 3, 2021.