KUCHING: Sarawak registered a new record high of 1,566 Covid-19 cases on Monday (Aug 16), with nearly half coming from Kuching.

       The state disaster management committee said Kuching had 731 cases, followed by its neighbouring districts of Bau with 238 and Lundu with 175.

       Another 20 districts recorded between one and 84 cases each, taking the state's cumulative tally to 88,572.

       This is the second time Sarawak's daily figures exceeded the 1,000 mark after recording 1,216 cases on Thursday (Aug 12).

       The committee said 904 of the new cases were close contacts to Covid-19 patients and 312 detected in active clusters.

       "There were two cases involving individuals returning from Sabah and another two imported cases involving individuals entering from Myanmar," it said in a statement.

       The committee also said 1,314 or 83.9% of the new cases were asymptomatic and 250 (16%) had mild symptoms while two cases were listed in the most severe category five (symptomatic and requiring ventilation).

       There was also one new fatality involving a 73-year-old man who died at the Sarawak General Hospital, taking the state's death toll to 487.

       In addition, the committee said four new community clusters and one workplace cluster were identified in the state.

       The community clusters were detected at Kampung Goebilt and Lorong Temenggung Haji Gobil in Kuching as well as Kampung Kakeng and Kampung Bunga in Serian, while the workplace cluster involved employees of a financial centre at Jalan Airport Lama in Bintulu.