MIRI – At least 220 natives from three longhouses in the Betong district of southern Sarawak have contracted Covid-19 after a gathering involving cockfighting and a drinking spree.
The infections were detected from Monday, when the event took place, according to the latest report compiled by Sarawak Health Department teams handling the local outbreak.
The cluster has been dubbed Jalan Muhibbah. There are still about 400 villagers left to be screened or have their virus test results pending.
The index case for the cluster is a 50-year-old man.
“Yesterday, 31 more new infections caused by those who took part in the Jalan Muhibbah cluster social gathering were found,” said the report.
Netizens have called for stricter checks and more effective enforcement by the state authorities as such longhouse activities are feared to have contributed to the widespread explosion of Covid-19 infections, not only in native longhouses, but in cities and towns, too.
There have also been calls for longhouse folk who continue to cause outbreaks by holding such merry-making gatherings to be punished with the maximum RM10,000 fine.
On Monday, the Jalan Muhibbah outbreak was sparked when longhouse folks indulging in cock-fighting and drinking in three longhouses led to an eruption of 55 new Covid-19 positive cases that day alone.
State Disaster Management Committee chairman Datuk Amar Dougglas Uggah, who is also, coincidently, Bukit Saban assemblyman in Betong, told a press conference in Kuching that the defiant attitude of many Sarawakians is shocking, and that cockfighting and drinking sprees among longhouse folk have seen many outbreaks of the virus.
“In my constituency, there was a cockfighting session involving three longhouses,” he said.
“The longhouse people defied directives against social gatherings and staged a cockfighting session.
“There were also party-hopping and drinking sessions. An outbreak of infections was triggered in those longhouses,” he said.
Uggah said the state authorities are shocked that Sarawakians continue to be disobedient and lax about the pandemic.
“We have been seeing three-digit surges in positive cases every day,” he added.
“Yet, so many do not bother about the SOPs.”
Uggah said there are those willing to endanger themselves, their families and the community just to indulge in such vices.
“The failure to follow SOPs is widespread,” he said, calling on the enforcement authorities to act sternly.
Amie Igat, a resident in coronavirus-ravaged Sibu, said the revised maximum fine of RM10,000 must be enforced in Sarawak.
“Those who still continue to disobey the SOPs on social gatherings must be punished with the RM10,000 fine,” he said.
Many other netizens have vented their anger against defiant longhouse folks for the infections they spread to others.
Sarawak has seen 87 deaths and about 11,000 positive cases from the coronavirus pandemic so far. – The Vibes, March 7, 2021
