Covid-19: S'wak reports one new case, breaking run of six days with no cases

KUCHING: Sarawak reported one new Covid-19 case on Friday (Aug 7), breaking a run of six consecutive days with zero cases.

The state disaster management committee said the new case involved a local student in Yemen who returned from Cairo, Egypt, via KLIA on Aug 1.

"He flew back to Sarawak on Aug 2, and was immediately brought to a hotel for the mandatory 14-day quarantine.

"His antigen RTK test at KLIA was negative, but a PCR test on Aug 3 returned positive on Aug 6," the committee said in a statement, adding that the student was asymptomatic.

It said contact tracing was being carried out and the case was classified as an imported case.

This brings the tally of confirmed cases in Sarawak to 679.

The committee also said five cases had recovered and were discharged from the Sarawak General Hospital here on Friday.

The number of recoveries now stands at 626, or 92.16% of the total cases to date.

On the inter-zone travel restrictions, the committee said five vehicles were ordered to turn back at roadblocks in Simunjan and Sri Aman on Friday for failing to produce a police permit to travel between Zones One and Two.

It said 1,475 vehicles were allowed to proceed as they had the permit.

Zone One covers Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions, while the remaining divisions from Sri Aman to Limbang are grouped into Zone Two.

From Aug 1 to 14, a police permit is required to travel between the two zones as part of measures to contain a recent surge in Covid-19 cases.