PUTRAJAYA: A COVID-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) with a capacity of 20 beds has been opened at the Putrajaya Hospital (HPJ) and Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Klang Hospital (HTAR) as part of preparations to face any possible surge in COVID-19 cases.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Central Region Zone PKRC at the Malaysia Agriculture Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) is expected to be closed this month due to the declining number of patients.

"Some 99.5 per cent of COVID-19 patients are in categories one which is asymptomatic and category two or mild symptoms, while there is a drop in admission of patients in categories three, four and five.

"So we are still able to accept patients and make preparations," he told the media after spending time with healthcare staff at HPJ who were on duty on the first day of Syawal, here today.

He said the PKRCs were set up by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in collaboration with Mercy Malaysia which provided equipment such as tents to accommodate patients if there was an increase in cases.

MAEPS was activated as a PKRC on April 16, 2020 with the intake of COVID-19 patients only involving non-citizen patients for Categories one and two and then closed on July 15 the same year.

On Dec 9, 2020, the government decided to reactivate MAEPS as a PKRC following the increase in COVID-19 cases, and it was upgraded to PKRC MAEPS 2.0 on Jan 24 by accepting Categories three and four patients.

MAEPS PKRC 2.0 was officially closed on Feb 8 and during the 14 months of operation, a total of 166,072 COVID-19 patients have been treated.

-- BERNAMA