Covid-19 spike: Schools in Kuching, Padawan, Samarahan to only reopen in mid-August

KUCHING: The reopening of primary and secondary school classes in Kuching, Padawan and Samarahan districts have been postponed by a further two weeks to mid-August, following a spike in Covid-19 cases.

The state disaster management committee said the decision to postpone the reopening was made based on advice from the state Health Department and National Security Council, and with the agreement of the state Education Department.

It said schools in Kuching and its neighbouring Padawan and Samarahan districts, which earlier had their reopening postponed from July 15 to August 3, would now resume classes on August 17.

"The postponement involves Transition, Form One to Form Four, Lower Six and Years One to Six classes in 213 schools.

"Preschool, Form Five and Upper Six classes will go on as usual," the committee said in a statement on Wednesday (July 29).

This comes after Kuching district was declared a red zone on Tuesday (July 28), after recording 16 new local transmissions. As of Wednesday, 52 local transmissions have been reported in the district in the last 14 days.

Red zones are districts with more than 40 locally transmitted cases in the last 14 days.

The committee also said Sarawak reported two new cases, one each in Kuching and Serian, on Wednesday.

It said one of the new cases was linked to the Sentosa cluster, while the other was a close contact of a positive case in the Mambong cluster. Both cases are asymptomatic.

On the inter-zone travel restrictions which will come into effect from Aug 1 to 14, the committee said individuals who wanted to travel between Zones One and Two must obtain a police permit first before buying plane, bus or express boat tickets.

It said those working in essential services, who are exempted from getting police permission, must have an approval letter from their department heads to travel between the zones.

Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions are grouped into Zone One, while the remaining nine divisions are covered in Zone Two.