MoH facilities can still cope with COVID-19 case spike - Health DG

PUTRAJAYA: Facilities under the Ministry of Health (MoH) are still sufficient to treat the growing number of COVID-19 patients for now and there is no need to reopen the low-risk quarantine and treatment centre at the Malaysian Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS).

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the MoH had identified several hospitals to accommodate the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, including adding the number of beds.

"So far we are using two blocks of the existing Ministry of Health Training Institute and will add two more blocks and increase the number of existing beds to 1,800.

"We can also increase the capacity of the blocks involved, that is, if we use one room for two people then we can get 4,200 beds," he said at a media conference on COVID-19 developments here yesterday.

In addition to this, he said, the MoH was also using the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital, Armed Forces Hospitals, the National Leprosy Control Centre at the Sungai Buloh Hospital and the old maternity block at the Kuala Lumpur hospital as quarantine and treatment centres for COVID-19 patients.

"Currently we are using the existing MOH facilities, if necessary, we will open a temporary hospital at MAEPS," he said.

On the COVID-19 infectivity rate, he said the R-naught is currently estimated at about 1.0.

"If we see a projection of less than 1.1 we hope in the next two weeks we can reduce the rate to 0.5, but we will not succeed if there is no cooperation from the public in complying with standard operating procedures," he said.

Meanwhile, he said the MoH would consider the proposal to conduct screenings on individuals from red zone districts who travel to green zones in an effort to protect states or districts with green zone status.

Apart from that, he said the ministry would also consider Johor and Terengganu’s proposal to be placed under the Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO) if the situation in both states allows it.

"After Nov 20, we will gauge the situation in Dungun and Johor. If it is good, we will consider returning them under RMCO," he said.

However, he said the ministry would continue to look at measures that could protect green states.

“Insyaallah, if within four days the situation improves, there will be six states under RMCO. Our move is to protect these six states with identified public health activities," he said.

Currently, Pahang, Kelantan, Perlis and Sarawak are categorised as green states and placed under the RMCO, while the rest are subjected to the CMCO.

-- BERNAMA