SARAWAK’S positivity rate has gone up from 14.5% to 18.8%, far exceeding the 5% threshold set by the World Health Organisation, a state health official said today.

State health director Dr Mohamed Sapian Mohamed said the state’s record high of 5,291 new infections today were detected from a sample of 28,065 tests.

The record number of Covid-19 cases is due to widespread infection in the community, he said.

“This shows that there is widespread infection in the community.

“The spike in infections means we have stepped up contact tracing to all parts of Sarawak, especially in areas with active Covid-19 clusters,” he said in a statement.

Sarawak first reported more than 3,000 daily cases on September 5 and the numbers had been hovering in that range before the record-breaking numbers today.

Sapian said the high volume of test samples has also overwhelmed the labs and that the test turnaround time will take longer.

“There is a delay of up to five days in testing the samples. Despite the delay in the test results, all close contacts have been issued a home surveillance order to curb the spread of the virus in the community,” he added.

Sapian said of the 5,291 infections today, 99.9% of the cases are category one and two patients who exhibit mild to no symptoms.

The use of RTK-antigen test kits will be ramped up to bring the cases under control, he added.

Discussions are also underway between the state disaster management committee and the Health Ministry to come up with a mitigation plan.

As of this afternoon, 19,198 new infections were reported nationwide. – September 12, 2021.