Kuching no longer Covid-19 red zone after local transmissions drop below 40 cases

KUCHING: Kuching district is now a yellow zone and no longer a red zone after the number of local transmissions dropped below 40 on Sunday (Aug 2).

In a statement, the state disaster management committee said Kuching recorded 39 locally transmitted cases in the last 14 days.

It said Samarahan, Serian, Bau and Lundu were the other yellow zone districts in Sarawak, with between one and 11 local transmissions in the last 14 days.

"This means five districts in Sarawak are still categorised as yellow zones while the remaining 35 districts are green," the committee said.

Kuching had been declared a red zone on Tuesday (July 28) after a double-digit spike brought the number of local transmissions to 53 in the previous 14 days.

Red zones are districts with more than 40 local transmissions in the last 14 days and yellow zones one to 40.

The committee also said no new cases were reported in Sarawak on Sunday, with the state's tally of confirmed cases remaining at 678.

It said there were still 10 active clusters in the state, comprising the Kuching engineering cluster with eight cases, Mambong cluster (7 cases), medical centre cluster (three cases), Jupiter cluster (three cases), Stutong market cluster (7 cases), Kuching jetty cluster (two cases), Sentosa cluster (31 cases), Melbourne PUI cluster (three cases), Kuching construction company cluster (two cases) and Satok market cluster (four cases).

On the inter-zone travel restrictions in Sarawak from Aug 1 to 14, the committee reiterated that anyone who wanted to travel between Zone One and Zone Two must first obtain a permit from the nearest police station.

Zone One covers Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions, where the yellow zones are located, while the remaining divisions from Sri Aman to Limbang, which are green zones, are grouped into Zone Two.

However, the committee said travellers going from Sarawak to Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah or Labuan do not need to get police permission.