KUCHING: Members of the public in Sarawak have been urged to exercise "extreme caution" when celebrating Chinese New Year next month following the surge of Covid-19 Omicron cases in the state.
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) director Prof Dr David Perera said that this month alone, 36 more Omicron variant cases have been detected in the state, namely in Kuching, Samarahan, Sibu and Kapit.
"A majority of these cases appear to involve community transmission," he stated in his report (covering Dec 2021 to January 11, 2022) to Sarawak Disaster Management Community Chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah today.
"The Omicron variant is highly transmissible. Our cases are through community transmission. As such the public are urged to be extremely cautious in the coming festive period of Chinese New Year.
"The public health standard operating procedures (SOP) need to be strictly adhered to. If possible, community gatherings are to be avoided to prevent further community spread," he said.
Dr Perera, who is also a member of the Sarawak Covid-19 Vaccine Advisory Group (SCoVAG), advised those who have yet to obtain their booster shots to get them immediately.
Studies, he said, have shown that a booster is necessary to boost waning neutralising antibody levels to protect from Omicron infection.
Meanwhile he said the IHCM, which is tracking the SARS -CoV-2 variants circulating in the state, had successfully sequenced 262 samples within its current report period.
"The Delta variant remained the dominant circulating variant in December with 212 cases detected and a further six cases detected this January.
"However in late December, we detected eight cases of the Omicron variant, of which seven were imported cases and one case with no history of recent travel.
"Then we had the other 36 cases as mentioned earlier," he added.
