Six More Primary Schools Ordered To Close

KUCHING, March 22 (Bernama) -- Six more primary schools in Sarawak were ordered closed for two weeks after 30 of its pupils were suspected of having been infected with the Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD), Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said Wednesday.
Dr Chan, who is the State Disaster and Relief Management Committee Chairman said, the Sarawak Health Department instructed the closure of the affected schools - SJK Kwang Chien, SK Mandoraris, Sk Jawa and SJK Kai Chung Bintangor in Sarikei and Sk Sungai Penipah and Sk Sungai Balingian in Mukah.
Of the six, four primary schools in Sarikei Division, have 20 suspected cases and two primary schools in Muka Division, with 10 suspected cases, which were confirmed by health teams when they were on a screening exercise, he told reporters, giving an update of the HFMD at his office in Petra Jaya here.
The latest closure brings the number of schools ordered closed to 31 so far.
Under the Health Ministry's policy, any school with two infections in seven days will be ordered to shut down automatically for two weeks.
Dr Chan said a brainstorming and information sharing session with the department to review the outbreak in the state would be held this Friday morning at his office.
The meeting would discuss further action to be taken, including the need to withdraw the directive to close the kindergartens and affected primary schools or otherwise in efforts to contain the HFMD outbreak in the state.
On the latest update Dr Chan said, in the last 24 hours, Sarawak reported 232 new cases of suspected HFMD, including 63 cases in Miri followed by Sarikei (37), Sibu (29), Kapit (25), Mukah (23) and Kuching (17).
He said the increasing number of new suspected cases were due to the screening exercise in the schools as well as the awareness among the parents on the current outbreak.
A seriously ill one-year-and-nine-month old girl from Belawai, who was admitted to the Sibu Hospital's Intensive Care Unit, had improved and in stable condition, he said, adding that 33 new admissions and 87 HFMD patients were still warded. Dr Chan was happy to note that the number of cases of serious cases and the admission to the hospital had been reduced over the last two days.
"I think, most probably it is over," he said adding that up to 6,044 children had been infected since the current outbreak in Sibu last month, he said.
The death toll remained at eight, including two cases confirmed to be Enterovirus 71 (EV71) positive, since Thursday while the department would be conducting further tests on the remaining ones to determine the actual cause.
Given that the children, who died from the disease were mostly in the two-year-old range, Dr Chan asked parents to be particularly careful if older siblings were found to be infected so as not to put the vulnerable younger ones at risk.