MIRI – A Penan couple in a remote settlement called Long Win in northern Sarawak have tested positive for Covid-19, raising concerns of another outbreak among the minority community.
A check with Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau confirmed to The Vibes that reports of the husband and wife are accurate.
“Yes, it is true that the couple from Long Win have been found positive with Covid-19. They were working in Miri and went back to Long Win recently to attend a funeral.
“After they had gone back to Miri, they started feeling ill and were later found to be infected by Covid-19. I am not sure if they got infected during the funeral at Long Win or they got infected while in Miri.
“I have alerted the Miri Health Department and it is preparing to deploy a team to Long Win to screen all the villagers there.”
Long Win is about eight hours by timber road from Miri.
It used to be home to about 400 Penans but many have migrated to urban areas seeking work.
Ngau said the Penan couple have been admitted into Miri Hospital.
Yesterday, at least six Penan folk in Long Lamai – one of the most remote settlements in the state – tested positive for the coronavirus, with a health team from here rushed to the area by a Fire and Rescue Department helicopter.
Committee chairman Datuk Lee Kim Shin had told reporters that, so far, at least six villagers in Long Lamai were found positive in the first round of screening three days ago.
“Long Lamai is being placed under an enhanced movement control order. The health team is going in again to test each one of the villagers. A quarantine and early treatment centre will be set up in Long Lamai, with police being deployed there from Marudi.”
Three days ago, eight Penan folk in Long Lamai were screened for Covid-19 after they were identified as close contacts of a Covid-positive villager in Miri.
The index case is a woman who lives here, but had returned to the remote settlement to attend her mother’s funeral two weeks ago.
She tested positive after returning here, and authorities fear that she may have infected more villagers during her stay.
Long Lamai, one of the largest Penan settlements, is in the Bario highlands about 600km inland from here. A land journey through timber tracks from here can take up to 12 hours.
The Covid-19 crisis in Sarawak has killed 322 people and infected more than 50,000 as of yesterday evening. – The Vibes, June 7, 2021
