MIRI – The easily transmissible Delta variant of Covid-19 has become the dominant strain in Sarawak’s capital after arriving in the state from Kalimantan in Indonesia and also west Malaysia.
Warning of more serious infections from the variant in the city and the rest of Sarawak, State Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian raised an alarm of other variants surfacing as well.
He warned more variants are emerging and urged the people to be vigilant.
“Covid-19, though only less than 18 months old, has changed and will continue to mutate with new variants emerging,” he warned in a social media post this morning.
He said it is majorly worrying that the high number of deaths in Malaysia and Indonesia now are due to the Delta variant.
He said the variant enables Covid-19 to spread to up to five to eight people in one go. It also has a longer incubation of up to three weeks or a month, he added.
The adviser to the State Disaster Management Committee said Sarawak is surrounded by a tsunami of the variant responsible for the surge of numbers throughout Kuching.
Vaccination is the only way now to ensure it does not cause death or serious damage, Dr Sim said.
He said Sarawak has managed to inoculate 82.5% of the population with the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and 60.1% with the second dose.
“Because it is more infectious, we still need to be on high alert with PCR tests, tracing and stopping the transmission via isolation and EMCO,” he said.
“Otherwise, the sheer numbers of infected cases will still result in not enough ICU beds and oxygen,” he said.
Dr Sim said people in west Malaysia and Kalimantan are facing double jeopardy with not enough people being vaccinated, and are suffering more cases in categories three to five.
Sarawak has seen 450 Covid-19 deaths and about 70,000 infection cases so far.
The state recorded 582 new cases yesterday, with Kuching district seeing 311 new infections.
Simunjan district has 73, Serian 51, Bau 50, Sibu 26, Bintulu 13, Samarahan 12, Miri 11, and many other districts 10 and below.
Kuching also saw four new outbreaks with the Kg Mebi cluster with 21 villagers infected, Kg Quop with 12 villagers hit, Kg Senari with 25 villagers down, and Telaga Air with 34 villagers infected.
The Sg Mangga cluster in Simunjan district saw 55 workers down with Covid-19 in an oil palm plantation. – The Vibes, July 30, 2021
