Seven more longhouses, one village in Sarawak placed under EMCO

KUCHING: Seven more longhouses and a village in Sarawak have been placed under enhanced movement control order (EMCO) starting Wednesday (May 5) and Thursday (May 6), says the state disaster management committee.

In a statement, the committee said a two-week EMCO would be enforced at Kampung Melango Lama in Saratok from May 5 to 18.

Other longhouses under the EMCO for one week from May 6 to 12 are Rumah Sali, Rumah Seliau and Rumah Inyang in Kanowit, Rumah Monica Giri in Sibu and Rumah Amrose Ramping, Rumah Lenggang and Rumah Umin in Selangau.

This comes as Sarawak reported 419 new Covid-19 cases and two fatalities on Wednesday, taking the state's tally to 33,086 cases with 190 deaths.

The committee said 61% of the new cases were detected in Sibu (133), Mukah (35), Kuching (33), Kanowit (28) and Bintulu (27).

There were 17 imported cases involving individuals returning from other states in Malaysia and one involving an individual returning from Papua New Guinea, whereas 310 were detected from screening of close contacts and active clusters.

The committee also said two new workplace clusters were identified in Sibu and Sarikei.

The Tanjong Kibong cluster involves a shipping maintenance company in Sibu and has 32 confirmed cases to date.

In Sarikei, the Jalan Sawit cluster was detected at the workers' quarters of a construction company involved in the Pan Borneo highway project. It has 18 confirmed cases so far.

Four clusters were declared to have ended after recording no new cases in the last 28 days. These are the Jalan Muhibah cluster in Betong, Jalan Kampung Hilir cluster in Sibu, Batu Gong cluster in Serian and Taman Vistagro cluster in Sri Aman.

There are still 76 active clusters in the state, out of which 19 recorded a total of 93 new cases.