KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 — Covid-19 hospital admissions involving patients from all five categories of disease are on the rise nationwide, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
If there’s a sudden surge in Covid-19 cases in any state, the Ministry of Health (MOH) will divert health care workers to the affected states.
“Recently, MOH conducted a tabletop exercise involving the Rapid Response Task Force. If there’s a sudden increase in Covid-19 cases in any state, we are ready to mobilise our health care workers to the respective states,” Khairy said in a press conference today.
A continuous rise in new and active Covid-19 cases for the past two weeks caused an increase in hospital admissions, although over 98 per cent of new Covid-19 cases belong to Category One and Two with asymptomatic and mild disease respectively.
High-risk Covid-19 patients under Categories One and Two, including pregnant women with certain risk factors and senior citizens with serious health conditions like kidney disease, require hospital care.
“Now, hospitals are also admitting non-Covid-19 patients to provide medical treatment to ensure they are not left behind in receiving appropriate treatment.
“Therefore, the overall utilisation rate of health facilities including hospital beds, ICU beds and Covid-19 quarantine centres was found to increase again, especially in Klang Valley,” Khairy said.
According to MOH, almost all states showed an increase in Covid-19 cases, except Perlis, Sarawak and Sabah, after the interstate travel ban was lifted on October 11.
The utilisation rate of non-intensive care unit (ICU) hospital beds exceeded 50 per cent in six states and federal territories, namely Perak, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Terengganu, Kelantan, and Labuan.
The ICU utilisation rate surpassed 50 per cent in a total of seven states and federal territories: Penang, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Melaka, Terengganu, and Kelantan.
Hospital admissions among Categories Three to Five Covid-19 patients, including those aged above 40 as well as elderly people, have shown an increase, Khairy added.
“This may be due to decreased Covid-19 antibody levels, several months after completing vaccination. This situation is also seen in many countries that have achieved high complete vaccination rates.”
As the elderly and those aged 40 to 59 years received the Covid-19 vaccine earlier, their antibody levels decreased earlier too.
