Covid-19: Sarawak a green state again
COVID-19 | Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today officially declares that Sarawak has once again returned as a green state after recording zero Covid-19 cases in 14 days.
In announcing this, he commended the efforts taken by a special team deployed by the Health Ministry to battle the pandemic in the Borneo state last month following the hike in the number of new clusters detected there...
COVID-19 | Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today officially declares that Sarawak has once again returned as a green state after recording zero Covid-19 cases in 14 days.
In announcing this, he commended the efforts taken by a special team deployed by the Health Ministry to battle the pandemic in the Borneo state last month following the hike in the number of new clusters detected there.
"There were 10 clusters detected in Sarawak, and since the past two weeks, there has been no increase in the number of new cases. Sarawak has now become a green state again.
"This shows that MOH’s action in sending Dr Hishamshah (Mohd Ibrahim) and Dr Norhayati Rusli to the ground and the actions taken by the public health there was a success.
"We have also managed to increase the capability of the Sarawak General Hospital (in handling Covid-19 cases)," he told a press conference in Putrajaya.
Hishamshah is MOH deputy director-general in charge of research and technical support, while Norhayati is the ministry's director for infectious diseases department.
On July 23, Noor Hisham told reporters that the ministry had dispatched a team to monitor and enhance on-the-ground operations against the Covid-19 spread in Sarawak.
The action was taken as Sarawak continued to record an increasing number of new positive cases and clusters. At that time, the state had recorded eight infection clusters.
On another matter, Noor Hisham told reporters that MOH had not found any Covid-19 case linked to a solidarity gathering at the Kuala Lumpur Court Complex in support of former premier Najib Abdul Razak on July 28.
He said this when asked about the assembly involving thousands of Najib supporters which sparked concerns that it could start an infection cluster.
"So far, based on the reports we received, there is no case related to the rally," he said.
Meanwhile, during the conference, Noor Hisham also stressed on the importance of using laboratory tests, the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test, to detect if one is infected with Covid-19.
This was compared to using an antibody test which he said is not accurate.
He said this when talking about the case of a Form 5 student at a school in Seri Pantai who had symptoms of vomiting and diarrhoea on Aug 9 and was taken to a private clinic the following day where he tested for dengue and Covid-19.
However, two tests using the RT-PCR method had since returned with negative results.
The Health DG said contact tracing activities by MOH on 54 individuals so far had also returned with negative results.
"As I have said earlier, the antibody screening test is not accurate. We should use RT-PCR, it is more accurate.
"In 24 hours, both (RT-PCR) tests have returned negative, and we have confirmed that the student is not infected by Covid-19," he said.
