“It is an offence for travellers to provide inaccurate details when filling in the e-health declaration form,” said committee chairman Douglas Uggah Embas.
He was commenting on a report that a Covid-19 patient in Miri had failed to declare in the e-health declaration form that she was returning from Tunisia although she was required to disclose that she had been out of the country in the past 30 days.
The woman, who was on transit in Kuala Lumpur, is currently undergoing treatment at Miri Hospital.
Although her rapid test kit antigen came back negative, she was tested positive for the virus after being randomly picked for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) swab test at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“The PCR test result was only known the following day. However, instead of waiting for the result, she flew back to Miri the same day,” he said.
Because her e-health declaration form did not indicate that she had travelled to Tunisia recently, she was treated as returning from Kuala Lumpur to Miri and was not subject to any quarantine requirements and went home straight, he said.
“The following day, we were informed by the authorities in Kuala Lumpur that her PCR swab test was positive for Covid-19,” he said.
Uggah said the failure to report was being investigated by the authorities and action may be taken.
He said the positive case in Miri was not considered as a local case because the patient was found positive for Covid-19 in Selangor.
However, her husband is one of the persons under investigation (PUI) reported in the state.
Indonesians must undergo 14 days’ quarantine
In a related matter, he said the committee decided today to allow Indonesians with working permits to enter the state but they must undergo 14 days’ of quarantine.
“The cost for the quarantine and tests will be paid for by their employers,” he said.
He also said an intensive close contact investigation had been conducted for the Kidurong cluster in Bintulu linked to a student studying at a public institution of higher learning in Mukah who tested positive for Covid-19 on June 14 after returning home to Bintulu.
“A total of 217 people were identified and all of them were screened. Eight tested positive, including the student, as reported in the last few days.”
In addition, he said authorities had conducted active case detection at two construction sites, namely the podium project site and the construction site near the old state legislative assembly building.
So far, he said 195 people had tested negative for the virus following a positive case at the podium project site.
He said only one positive Covid-19 case was reported today from the construction site near the old state legislative assembly building, linked to two Indonesian construction workers who went on the run after discovering they had tested positive for Covid-19 on June 18.
The latest patient, he said, was a local who worked as a manager at the construction company where the two Indonesians had worked.
He said a total of 112 first-generation and 312 second-generation close contacts had been identified, linked to the two Indonesians.
As of today, Uggah said the total positive cases in Sarawak was 570. The death toll due to the virus in Sarawak remains at 17.
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