KUALA LUMPUR, August 5 — The Greater Klang Valley Special Task Force (GKV STF) promised today that it will continuously work to control the Covid-19 epidemic in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Negeri Sembilan.
Dr Chong Chee Kheong, chairman of the recently established GKV STF under the Ministry of Health (MOH), said today that the task force is well informed about the current Covid-19 situation in Klang Valley and listed some initiatives that have been implemented to overcome the epidemic.
“Public hospitals are continuously working to ensure that each patient receives optimum treatment,” Dr Chong mentioned in a statement today.
Today, MOH reported a record-high 20,596 new Covid-19 cases, including 8,549 infections in Selangor, 2,163 cases in Kuala Lumpur, and 989 cases in Negeri Sembilan, totalling 11,701 fresh cases in the Greater Klang Valley in the past 24 hours.
According to Dr Chong, there are 29 public hospitals, 51 private hospitals and two Covid-19 Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centre (PKRC) to treat Covid-19 patients. This includes four full Covid-19 patients that treat only Covid-19 patients: Ampang Hospital, Selayang Hospital, Serdang Hospital and Sungai Buloh Hospital.
The task force also intends to increase the capacity of the hospitals by increasing Covid-19 beds and ICU beds through repurposed areas in order to treat the coronavirus patients.
Besides that, non Covid-19 patients are also being transferred to other private hospitals to pave the way for public hospitals to accommodate more Covid-19 patients.
“Ambulance services will also be increased with the help of the Malaysia Civil Defence Force, the Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba), as well as non-government organisations (NGOs) such as the Malaysian Red Crescent Society and Malaysian St John Ambulance.”
MOH has also set up virtual Covid-19 assessment centres (CAC) to manage mild and asymptomatic patients requiring self-quarantine at home, and is also working with NGOs to ramp up contact tracing measures in Klang Valley.
“GKV STF encourages the public to follow all the standard operating procedures (SOPs) although they have received two doses of vaccination.”
The task force, along with a team of external experts, was formed in July to deliberate on public health measures to cope with the newer and faster spread of the disease underpinned by the Delta variant.
From July 29 until August 4, a total of 67,052 cases were recorded in the Greater Klang Valley — Selangor (46,261 cases), Kuala Lumpur (14,612 cases), and Negeri Sembilan (6,179 cases).
On average, for the past seven days, these two states and the federal territory have been registering 9,579 cases per day.
In the same period of time, a total of 761 deaths were reported in Greater Klang Valley in just seven days: Selangor (496 deaths), Kuala Lumpur (180 deaths), and Negeri Sembilan (85 deaths).
