KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — All Covid-19 patients nationwide are either treated in hospitals or low-risk quarantine and treatment centres, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said today.
Health deputy director-general (medical) Dr Rohaizat Yon told CodeBlue that currently, all Covid-19 patients in Sabah are either treated in hospitals or at low-risk quarantine and treatment centres; people with no or mild symptoms of the disease are placed in the latter facility.
“Currently, all Covid-19 patients are treated in hospitals and Pusat Kuarantin dan Rawatan Covid-19 Berisiko Rendah. Currently, none of them are treated at home,” Dr Rohaizat said.
“Currently, MOH still has capacity in managing Covid-19 patients. As of today, we have 3,853 hospital beds and 8,704 beds at Pusat Kuarantin dan Rawatan Covid-19 Berisiko Rendah. Hence, total beds are 12,557 and we only use 36 per cent, i.e. we still have the capacity in managing Covid-19 patients.”
Dr Rohaizat did not specify the bed occupancy rate separately for Covid-19 hospitals and quarantine centres in the state.
According to Dr Rohaizat, as of now, Sabah has nine hospitals assigned to treat Covid-19 patients and 27 low-risk quarantine and treatment centres.
“Not only that, we also have Medan Hospital (field hospital) with the cooperation of the army, which has 100 beds for non-Covid-19 patients.”
An anonymous specialist from Tawau Hospital told CodeBlue today that patients are only at home while waiting for an ambulance to fetch them to the hospital.
“For now, as far as Tawau is concerned, (there) is no such thing here,” the doctor said, when asked if stable Covid-19 patients in the state were indeed being treated at home.
“Every case will be admitted for chest X-ray, daily blood test monitoring,and observation.”
Countries like India and Italy have allowed for stable and low-risk Covid-19 patients to be treated at home. The Indian government has a standard guideline, whereby it includes the criteria of patients who are eligible for home isolation, when the patient should seek medical attention, the role of state or district health authorities in monitoring home isolation cases, and when to discontinue home isolation.
Currently, MOH Malaysia does not treat low-risk and stable Covid-19 patients at home.
Note at 10.05pm: The headline and contents of this story were amended to better reflect the spokesperson’s point of view.
