High COVID-19 cases: Selangor increases beds, opens field hospital

SHAH ALAM: All hospitals in Selangor are receiving high numbers of COVID-19 cases especially involving category three and above continuously since late last month, said State Health director Datuk Dr Sha'ari Ngadiman.

Subsequently, he said the department was increasing the number of beds through the activation of a field hospital by the Malaysian Armed Forces (MAF) and emergency procurements of medical equipment at the Selangor Health Department (JKNS) level.

"Health personnel from outside of the Klang Valley are also being mobilised, (they are) medical officers, nurses and assistant medical officers," he said in a statement uploaded on the JKNS Facebook page today.

Dr Sha'ari was explaining the current status of hospitals in Selangor following viral pictures of the emergency departments at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) in Klang and the Shah Alam Hospital.

In the meantime, he said that the hike in the admission of acute patients at the emergency department of the Shah Alam Hospital was because the hospital had now been turned into a non-COVID-19 major specialist hospital giving acute treatments to non-COVID-19 patients in the Petaling district.

"For HTAR, most of the patients have been treated first at the emergency department while waiting for a bed in the wards. As such, the increase in beds had to be done outside of the HTAR emergency department temporarily.

"HTAR and Shah Alam Hospital are in the process of increasing the respective capacities of their beds," he said.

-- BERNAMA