KUALA LUMPUR (April 30): The Ministry of Health (MoH) now has 18 hospitals for Covid-19 screening in Sarawak, representing a 72% increase from five hospitals in the first phase of the movement control order (MCO) period.

Meanwhile, four hospitals — namely Sarawak General Hospital, Miri Hospital, Bintulu Hospital and Sibu Hospital — with a total of 736 beds have been identified as Covid-19 treatment centres in the state, said health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement today.

The four hospitals are equipped with 63 critical care beds and 112 ventilators, he added.

Other than that, there are five quarantine centres and treatment facilities for low-risk cases with a cumulative capacity of 901 beds.

There are also four laboratories in Sarawak General Hospital, Sibu Hospital, Miri Hospital and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) to conduct Covid-19 tests.

Currently, Noor Hisham said, these labs can conduct 898 tests per day, and this will be increased to 1,040.

In addition, Sarawak General Hospital will receive a Lab Turbo machine, with a capacity of 200 tests per day, expected to be operational by next month.

Meanwhile, Bintulu Hospital is also expected to begin conducting tests in May with a capacity of 30-40 tests per day.

If needed, the ministry will send samples to hospital laboratories in Peninsular Malaysia or private laboratories as an immediate measure to boost testing capacity.

So far, Noor Hisham said, the ministry has identified three clusters in Sarawak, namely the Kuching church cluster, Italy cluster and Sarawak General Hospital cluster.

One new case was detected in the Kuching church cluster, bringing the total to 176 cases.

In this cluster, three patients have died, two are in intensive care units, 85 are being treated in regular wards, and 86 have recovered and been discharged.

Meanwhile, two other cases were detected in the Sarawak General Hospital cluster, with a total of 56 cases.

Of the 56 cases, 21 patients have been given treatment, while 35 have been discharged.

On the other hand, the Italy cluster had no new case today, so its total cases remained at 63.

Currently, the ministry has identified 32 clusters and sub-clusters in Malaysia in which the Seri Petaling tabligh cluster remains the biggest cluster in the country with 2,173 confirmed infections.

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