Covid-19: Kuching now yellow zone with under 40 cases detected over two weeks

KUCHING: Kuching has turned into a yellow zone from a red one after recording only 14 new Covid-19 cases in the last two weeks.

Announcing this on Friday (May 15), Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah said yellow zones were areas where less than 40 new cases were detected in the last 14 days.

With this, there are no more red zones in Sarawak.

Samarahan, the only other red zone besides Kuching previously, turned yellow on Monday (May 11).

Seven of the state's 40 districts are now categorised as yellow, while the rest are green.

Uggah also said no new cases were recorded in Sarawak on Friday, while six more cases had recovered and were discharged from the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) here.

"Of the total number of cases, 74.45% have now recovered," he said at the state disaster management committee's daily Covid-19 briefing.

The state's tally of confirmed cases remained at 544, with 17 fatalities.

Uggah also said all Sarawakians returning from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah or Labuan were now required to have their samples taken for testing immediately upon arrival.

"They will be placed in hotels until their sample results are obtained. If they test negative, they will be allowed to go home and issued wristbands for home quarantine," he said.

This comes after a new university cluster outside Sarawak emerged in recent days.

Uggah added that civil servants returning from the Peninsula, Sabah or Labuan to resume their duties in Sarawak must undergo a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test three days before travelling to the state.

He said they would only be allowed to enter if their test results were negative.