SIBU, Feb 16 — The Jalan Tiong Hua area here could be placed under lockdown due to the rising number of Covid-19 cases over the last two weeks, Sibu Division Disaster Management Committee coordinator Dr Annuar Rapaee said.
He revealed this in a reply to former Dudong assemblyman Yap Hoi Liong during a Facebook Live discussion hosted by Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman Clarence Ting today.
Citing data from the Sibu Divisional Health Office, Ting had told the discussion that 111 cases have been recorded at Jalan Tiong Hua since the start of the year, with 35 new cases from yesterday alone.
Jalan Tiong Hua is also currently the only red zone in the SMC area. The disaster management committee had divided Sibu into 31 zones as part of a new strategy in the war against Covid-19 here.
Zones with more than 41 cases in a two-week period are classified as red, 21 to 40 cases as orange, one to 20 cases as yellow and zero cases as green.
On the pandemic’s data in Sibu, Dr Annuar said that the committee would try to make it more user-friendly to enable members of the public to access the information more conveniently.
“From there they can find out which zone they belong to and this will let them know the number of cases in their respective zones. We will give an update on Covid-19 cases in the zones after 6pm daily after the official announcement from Sarawak Disaster Management Committee,” he said.
Earlier, Dr Annuar said that the zoning strategy would enable them to more quickly identify Covid-19 hotspots.
“From there, ACD will be done vigorously at the hotspot areas instead of imposing lockdown on the whole town because we do not want to disrupt much of other people’s livelihood. If we are to enforce lockdown for the whole town, it will disrupt a lot of businesses and livelihood especially the poor.
“By adopting the strategy we can focus better zone by zone. Hopefully by doing this we can also put our resources and as we already know, we do not have resources like the first world countries.
“Therefore, we have to do our work smartly and strategically,” he said.
Sibu district is the epicentre of the worst Covid-19 outbreak in the state so far, contributing 2,539 cases and 33 fatalities to the state tally of 6,832 cases and 61 deaths yesterday.
It is also where the biggest Covid-19 cluster yet in Sarawak, the Pasai Cluster, had originated. Yesterday, there were 2,576 cases related to the cluster throughout the state. — Borneo Post
