File photo shows the Sibu Bus Terminal at Pahlawan Road.
KUCHING (Dec 18): The Sarawak Health Department is calling on passengers of Sungai Merah Bus Bhd who boarded a bus with the registration number QSX 6722 from Sibu to Serian at 12.50am on Dec 17 to visit the nearest health clinic to be screened for Covid-19.
According to the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC), checks on the Jalan Pahlawan Bus Terminal, Sibu closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras revealed that the four Indonesian women who tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday (Dec 17) were believed to have boarded the bus before it departed at around 1am bound for Serian.
Earlier, Sarawak Health director Dr Chin Zin Hing said the operator did not have a passenger list and there was no telling how many passengers boarded the bus as well.
“There was no passenger list available. We are asking the passengers in that bus to come forward for screening,” he told The Borneo Post when contacted earlier.
The four women were among nine new Covid-19 cases announced by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) in its daily update yesterday.
SDMC said yesterday that the women had tested negative for Covid-19 on Dec 6 for a job but in a second swab on Dec 15, their results returned positive.
The committee said they were asymptomatic and had been classified as imported Covid-19 cases.
The Sibu Health Department also said it was increasing its community surveillance to detect possible close contacts of the four women.
Sarawak Police Commissioner Datuk Aidi Ismail earlier told The Borneo Post that the police were hot on their heels locating the four women.
He said it was believed that the women were already in Entikong, Indonesia based on an international phone number that was used by one of them to call an individual.
“However, investigations are ongoing to determine the exact location of these women to ensure they have indeed left the country,” said Aidi.
He also revealed that the individual that the women called was a freelancer who assisted foreign workers to seek employment in the state.
That individual, he added, also took the women to undergo a swab test on Dec 6 at a private clinic in Sibu for employment purposes.
Police have already interviewed and questioned the female freelancer who is now under quarantine due to her close contact with the four women.
“We will however interview her again if needed,” said Aidi.
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