State Health Department Orders Re-closure Of SK St John Medong

KUCHING, April 3 (Bernama) -- The Sarawak Health Department has ordered the re-closure of Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) St John Medong in Mukah Division effective Monday, following the detection of 10 new cases of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD), barely a week after it was reopened.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said the school was among 17 primary schools throughout Sarawak which were re-opened on March 27 while another 33 schools were still closed.
Since the school re-opened, the health team had detected 10 new cases and to curb the transmission, the department closed down the school again, he told a news conference on the daily HFMD updates.
The ministry's policy is that any school with two or more infections within seven days will be ordered to shut down automatically for two weeks.
Dr Chan, who is also the State Disaster and Relief Management Committee chairman, said 46 new cases of HFMD were detected over the last 24 hours, including 10 cases in Bintulu, followed by Sarikei (seven), Sibu and Miri (six each), Mukah (five), Kapit (four) and the rest from other towns.
Although the HFMD outbreak had shown a declining trend in the state, the number of new cases reported in Samarahan and Sri Aman divisions had risen.
Dr Chan said that a total of 260 cumulative cases were reported in Samarahan and 143 in Sri Aman.
He said a 16-month-old boy was admitted to Miri Hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) last Saturday and was in critical condition.
To date, 7,729 children have been infected since the outbreak was detected in Sibu in February, with 19 new admissions and 45 patients still warded.
Eight deaths linked to HFMD have been reported so far with three confirmed to be due to EV71 while the remaining cases are still under investigation.
Dr Chan said the health department would also focus on active case detection in the 488 kindergartens and day-care centres and 534 pre-schools, which re-opened today.