Sarawak says two new Covid-19 cases in last 24 hours, Kuching now a yellow zone

Sulok Tawie

10 July 2020 at 6:57 am·2-min read

KUCHING, July 10 — After registering zero new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases over the last 14 days, Kuching district recorded two positive cases over the last 24 hours.

Sarawak Disaster Management Committee chairman Datuk Douglas Uggah said Kuching district is now categorised as yellow from green zone.

“The first case, a local man, was treated at the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) on July 5 due to breathing difficulty and tiredness since July 1. He is also suffering from diabetes melitus and high blood pressure,” he said.

Uggah said the patient was shown to be Covid-19 positive on July 9 based on the results of the RT-PCR test.

Uggah said the second Kuching patient is a woman who works in an engineering consultant firm and was admitted to SGH on July 7 for a chest pain and dry cough.

He said early swab tests performed on her that day returned Covid-19 positive, which was confirmed in a second test yesterday.

He said the two patients are also suffering from severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) but that they have no history of travelling overseas.

He said the state Health Department is tracing close contacts of the two cases.

“The close contacts of the first case only involves family members,” he said, adding that at least 30 close contacts have been identified for the second case.

“The 30 have been ordered to be quarantined for 14 days and screened for Covid-19,” he said.

The second patient’s employer has been ordered to temporarily close the consultant firm for disinfection

He said the Health Department is investigating the sources of infection in the two cases.