KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 28): There is enough capacity to treat Covid-19 patients at government hospitals, assured Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today, who revealed that less than 50% of the beds in government hospital and quarantine centres for such patients, nationwide, are currently occupied.
Nevertheless, he said the ministry is considering letting people diagnosed with Covid-19 spend their quarantine at home instead, due to the delay in transferring individual patients to hospitals, following the increase of infections in the Klang Valley.
“But we will need to look into the size of the house and the ability of the officials to monitor the patients’ health progress,' he added.
In the Klang Valley, which have been seeing infection spikes in the past month, about 58% or 6,646 of the 11,493 beds provided for Covid-19 patients that are spread out in six hospitals and quarantine centres, are filled.
Categorised under the Central Region Covid-19 Unified Centre, these Klang Valley hospitals are: Sungai Buloh Hospital, Kuala Lumpur Hospital, MAEPS Quarantine and Low Risk Treatment Centre in Serdang, Ministry of Health Training Institute (ILKKM) in Sungai Buloh, the National Leprosy Control Centre in Sungai Buloh, and the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital.
The Sungai Buloh Hospital beds are 81% filled (513 out of 630 occupied); ILKMM's beds are 71% filled (1,918 out of 2,700); National Leprosy Control Centre is 84% filled (543 out of 645). At the same time, half of the beds (3,333 out of 6640) at the MAEPS Quarantine and Low Risk Treatment Centre are filled up, while the Kuala Lumpur Hospital bed occupancy rate is at 52% (339 out of 648). Meanwhile, none of the 230 beds in the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital is occupied yet.
The MoH has also increased bed capacity for Covid-19 patients nationwide to 28,674, from 25,456 as at Dec 25.
“We have 6,055 hospital beds, 22,145 beds for PKRC [Low-Risk Treatment Centre] and 474 beds for ICU [intensive care units]. So total beds for the hospital, PKRC and ICU stand at 28,674.
“Nationwide, if you look into our cumulative data for Covid-19, we have 3,046 patients at the moment. That means 50% capacity of hospital beds have been filled. For ICU, we have 184 patients, which means 39% has been filled, while for PKRC, we have 8,112 patients, representing 37% of occupancy rate,” Dr Noor Hisham told a press briefing today.
This means overall bed capacity use for Covid-19 patients is at less than 50%. He also noted that about 89% to 90% of Covid-19 patients are in Category 1 or Category 2, with Cat 1 being asymptomatic, while Cat 2 indicates those who have mild symptoms.
Yesterday, he advised those who have tested positive for Covid-19 but are asymptomatic, to self-isolate at home but stay in touch with their district health offices (Pejabat Kesihatan Daerah (PKD), as they may not be taken to government hospitals immediately.
“The delay is due to the increase in patients who are found positive. There is still capacity to take in patients, but we are looking at the logistics to transfer them from their homes to hospitals.
“For example, when we look into the foreign workers’ group, we can send buses and others [to pick them up]. But for individuals who live in certain locations, it may take some time,” Dr Noor Hisham explained today, adding that PKD officers are the ones who will transfer the Covid-19 patients to hospitals.
"Due to this delay in transferring patients to hospitals, we advise those who are detected positive to remain at home and confine yourself at home. Try to isolate yourself from family members, because there’s a possibility of infection," he reiterated.
As to how many are waiting to be transferred now, Dr Noor Hisham could not say. “It is hard for us to quantify but they are mainly in the Klang Valley, because of the congestion of cases in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur,” he said.
Malaysia today reported 1,594 new Covid-19 cases, bringing cumulative confirmed infections to 106,690.