HFMD Contained, No More Kindergartens Closed

KUCHING, April 6 (Bernama) -- The Sarawak Health Department will not order any more kindergartens and child care centres to shut down as the spread of the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in the state has been contained.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said Thursday the Active Surveillance Team from the department had not detected any symptoms of the disease among the children, who returned on Monday after all the pre-schools were reopened.
"We need not close any more of them as new HFMD cases reported in Sarawak has shown a declining trend," he told a news conference on the daily HFMD updates at his office in Petra Jaya here.
On March 3, the Health Ministry issued a directive to close down all kindergartens and other similar institutions as a preventive measure to curb the disease following the detection of the first HFMD case in Sibu in February.
Dr Chan, who is also the State Disaster and Relief Management Committee Chairman, said Sarawak reported 8,033 infected children so far, with 61 new cases detected Thursday compared to 114 Wednesday.
He said the one-year-seven-month-old girl, from Nanga Bena, Baleh in Kapit division, who was airlifted by a medical team to the Sibu hospital Thursday, was in stable condition.
Sarawak also reported 20 new admissions Thursday from 21 Wednesday, bringing the total number of children admitted to 1,394 so far, he said.
He said 40 HFMD patients were still in the wards, with Sibu hospital having the highest number of 12 infected children, followed by the Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) here (seven) and Sarikei and Miri hospitals (six each).
Since the current outbreak was first detected in the state, he said Sibu division had also reported the highest cases, with 2,215, followed by Miri (1,213), Bintulu (1,003), Kuching (959), Sarikei (792) and Mukah (694), he said.
However, the death toll remained at nine, with three cases confirmed to Enterovirus 71 (EV71) positive so far.