KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — Sarawak has broken from federal practice by naming the premises visited by people infected by Covid-19 in the state and even their workplace.
The Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) yesterday revealed the names of places visited by infected Covid-19 patients in the state from mid-December, amid a surge of the virus in the peninsula and Sabah.
The data published by the Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) includes their workplace, restaurants that they have visited, as well as places where the infected person carried out leisure and social activities.
Sarawak Local Government and Housing Minister Dr Sim Kui Hian stated that this initiative is being carried out under Sarawak’s Protection of Public Health Ordinance 1999.
This Ordinance consolidates the law related to public health in Sarawak.Under this ordinance, the state is able to carry out investigation of infectious disease and track the mobility of persons from an infected area.
“For better outcomes compared to West Malaysia, Sabah, SDMC exe Sarawak LA autonomy-PPH ordinance 1999 to reveal place, date, time visited by Covid-19 cases which medical and public health specialists think the public may be at high risk of exposure,” Dr Sim tweeted yesterday.
At the same time, Dr Sim also urged affected business premises to publicly announce their exposure to the coronavirus, according to The Borneo Post.
The information that has been published in the official website of the Sarawak Ministry of Local Government and Housing consists of the name of the infected place, the dates of the duration of the places exposed to the coronavirus, and the affected time period, in the Stutong (Kuching) and Bah Sayap (Miri) clusters.
The federal Ministry of Health (MOH) does not state the specific locations of reported Covid-19 cases, with its MySejahtera contact tracing app only revealing if infections have been detected within a 1km radius of one’s location.
So far, a total of 1,180 Covid-19 cases have been reported in Sarawak, including 14 new infections yesterday.
A total of 78 Covid-19 cases have been reported in the past two weeks in eight districts in Sarawak. All of the eight districts — Sri Aman, Bukit Mabong, Sibu, Miri, Meradong, Lawas, Bintulu, Kuching — have been categorised as yellow districts. The balance 32 districts in Sarawak have been grouped as green, as there were no local transmissions reported in the past two weeks.
