James Kon
Brunei Darussalam yesterday recorded a new imported case of COVID-19, ending 11 days of zero cases and bringing the total tally of confirmed cases to 143.
The latest confirmed case is a 31-year-old foreign woman who arrived in Brunei Darussalam on board a Royal Brunei Airlines (RB) BI874 flight on August 12, via Kuala Lumpur, from the Middle East.
She was detected from the COVID-19 swab test screening programme for individuals who have just arrived in the country from abroad.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has identified 42 contacts, from which 34 have undergone the COVID-19 swab test and were confirmed negative, while the rest are still awaiting test results.
Details of the latest case were provided by Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar, during a press conference at the MoH’s Al-’Afiah Hall yesterday.
He said, “Case 143 has no signs of infection and is currently being treated at the National Isolation Centre. All of the contacts are also undergoing quarantine under the Infectious Diseases Act (Chapter 204).”
Regarding the latest updates for Case 142, the minister said, “Alhamdulillah on August 17, Case 142 has recovered and is no longer at the National Isolation Centre, after he was confirmed negative through the COVID-19 swab test.”
He also said that 639 individuals are undergoing mandatory isolation at government’s monitoring centres.
Since March, 4,366 individuals have completed their mandatory self-isolation at the monitoring centres.
In the past 24 hours, 555 samples have been tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, bringing the total number of laboratory tests conducted since January to 49,399.
In its breakdown, healthinfo.gov.bn revealed that there have been 111 in the Brunei-Muara District, 25 in the Belait District and six in the Tutong District.
For information, visit the MoH official website at www.moh.gov.bn, or contact the Health Advice Line at 148.