KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — Nine new Covid-19 cases were reported in Sarawak today out of 16 fresh cases nationwide, with the Sarawakian cases comprising seven local transmissions and two imported infections.
Of the seven local transmissions in Sarawak, one case was reported from the newly identified Melbourne Persons-Under-Investigation (PUI) cluster in Kuching, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported.
The second person under this cluster who tested positive today was the close contact of Sarawak Patient 587, as they traveled together on the same plane.
The first case (Patient 8,749) reported under this cluster was a Malaysian student who returned from Australia on July 15. He or she boarded two aircraft — from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur and then from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching.
Upon his or her arrival, he or she was then taken to the state’s quarantine center and was found positive in a screening test on July 17. Following that, further investigation and active case detection was carried out
A total of 21 close contacts consisting of passengers from the aircraft and related public vehicles have been screened and are still waiting for the result. The cause of the infection has yet to be found.
The rest of the six local transmissions in Sarawak comprised three cases from the Stutong cluster, one case from the Sentosa cluster, and a close contact of Patient 574 (Sarawak Patient Number) also tested positive in the screening, the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) reported separately.
Besides them, a teacher who returned to Sarawak from Kota Bahru Airport also tested positive for the coronavirus during a random sampling of teachers who returned from leave.
Two Malaysian women returning from South Korea and Russia respectively tested positive for Covid-19 on the 10th day of their quarantine following their arrival in Kuching International Airport, where they had tested negative with the antigen rapid test kit at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on July 9 and July 6 respectively.
The South Korea and Russia returnees also tested negative on the second day of their quarantine at a Kuching quarantine centre on July 11 and July 7 respectively. The women did not show any symptoms until they tested positive for the coronavirus in their second PCR test conducted on Day 10 of their quarantine period on July 20 and July 18 respectively.
Besides that, MOH reported another six imported cases and one local transmission in peninsular Malaysia.
The imported cases consist of returnees from India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China, Indonesia and South Korea.
A foreigner was found positive under the local transmission case. The patient was detected with the coronavirus during a screening before departing abroad.
That brings the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country to 8,831, with 142 active patients who are receiving treatment in hospital.
Four patients were discharged today, bringing the total number of recovered Covid-19 patients to 8,566. Five patients were placed in the intensive care unit, with one under ventilator support.
MOH also identified another new cluster on a ship in Port Klang, Selangor. A crew of the ship from Russia who has a history of travelling to Egypt and India was detected positive.
This cluster was identified following a screening carried out by the crew of the ship before returning to the home country.
A total of 24 people were screened, consisting of four Covid-19 cases and the rest 20 people were tested negative.
All the positive cases in this cluster associate foreigners and the close contacts were placed in the ship under quarantine.
Therefore, this cluster does not carry the risk of transmitting the infection to the community because it is an isolated imported cluster, according to MOH.
Malaysia did not register any Covid-19 death cases today and the death toll remains at 123.
