KUCHING, March 9 — Sixty-eight of the longhouses in Sarawak remain under a lockdown as of today as a measure to check the spread of the Covid-19 infection, according to the State Disaster Management Committee.

It said in a statement that 2,082 or 18.09 per cent of the Covid-19 cases reported in the state were detected in the longhouses in the state.

"They are from among the 32,380 residents of longhouses who were screened for Covid-19 and make up 6.43 per cent of the total number tested,” it said.

The committee also said that 163 new cases were detected in the state over 24 hours up to noon today, raising to 11,511 the cumulative number of cases in the state.

One more death was reported today, it said, adding that it was an 83-year-old woman who died at the Mukah Hospital, thus raising the death tally to 89.

As of yesterday, 24,030 people in the state have been vaccinated against the disease under the immunisation programme that began on February 26. — Bernama