Sarawak adopts digital tracking to curb COVID-19 

KUCHING, March 20 -- The Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee (JPBN) will be using digital tracking to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the state, said Sarawak Deputy Chief Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

Uggah who is also JPBN chairman said Sarawak Multimedia Authority (SMA) will assist the committee in using digital tracking to trace individuals who have been identified to undergo quarantine in the house and digital mapping to identify the disease’s infection hotspots.

“The move is necessary to assist them comply with quarantine requirements and to prevent COVID-19 from spreading,” he said in a media conference at Wisma Bapa Malaysia at the state administrative centre, Petra Jaya here.

According to him, SMA will be supplying the committee with monitoring facilities via an application it has developed while individuals who are required to undergo quarantine will be provided with tracking devices.

In this regard, digital mapping would enable the committee to backtrack locations which have been visited by COVID-19 patients in the state so that preventive measures could be tightened, he said.

Uggah said Sarawak today recorded seven more positive COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of positive cases in the state to 58.

“All the new cases were being treated at Sarawak General Hospital in which four cases were from the Tabligh assembly cluster at Seri Petaling Mosque, two from a church cluster (Emmanuel Baptist Kuching) while another is still being investigated,” he said.

He said Sarawak JPBN has also decided to order all fast food stores such as KFC, Pizza Hut and Sugar Bun including drive-in counters as well as all supermarket chains to stop operation at 8 pm.

Commenting on the announcement of Senior Minister cum Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob that the armed forces would be assisting police to enforce the Movement Control Order from Sunday, Uggah said he was confident the Federal Cabinet has taken into consideration the feedback from each state before making the decision.          

“If we compared what took place on March 18, there was an improvement in compliance. I believe Kuala Lumpur will making a decision based on the feedback from over all the country and we will comply with the decision made,” he said. 

-- BERNAMA