KUCHING, Sept 12 — Sarawak will expand the use of the COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Test Kit (RTK-Ag) to identify positive cases as soon as possible so that control measures can be taken promptly.
State Health director Datuk Dr Mohamed Sapian Mohamed said this was in view of the highest number of COVID-19 cases recorded in Sarawak today at 5,291 cases.
He said the department would continue its monitoring to assess the COVID-19 situation in the state and carry out measures to address the outbreak.
“A mitigation strategy is being drawn up and the detailed strategy will be announced soon after a discussion with the Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee.
“The public is urged to continue to adhere to the standard operating procedures such as wearing face masks and maintaining physical distance at all times,” he said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, Dr Mohamed Sapian said 99.9 per cent of the total new cases reported today involved patients with mild or no symptoms.
He said the increase in daily COVID-19 cases has resulted in the ramping up of active case detection activities in all parts of Sarawak, especially in localities with active clusters.
He added that the high volume of samples had burdened the existing laboratories’ capacity, resulting in a longer turnaround time for results.
“This has caused a backlog of up to five days. Despite the delay in obtaining results, all contacts with risks have been given the Home Surveillance Order to prevent the spread of the virus in the community,” he said.
The number of fatalities from COVID-19 in Sarawak jumped to 625 after eight more death cases were recorded today.
