THE Sarawak government will provide financial assistance for Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) to set up a 10-bed “hybrid intensive care unit (ICU)” to cater for Covid-19 patients, Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah Embas said today.

He said the unit will isolate these patients from the other patients.

Uggah, who also chairs the state disaster management committee, said work on the hybrid ICU will start next month.

Since space at SGH is already at a premium, this ICU will be set up at one of the car parks of the hospital.

Uggah, accompanied by newly appointed Deputy Chief Minister Dr Sim Kui Hian, said with the threat of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus still lingering, setting up the hybrid ICU is only “preparing for the worst”.

“If you look at other countries now, Europe and the US, it’s scary,” he said.

At the height of the epidemic, SGH had 70 ICU beds, many of them requisitioned from other wards.

With daily Covid-19 cases in Kuching in the single digit, many of the beds and wards have been reverted to what they were before the epidemic.

Uggah was also at the hospital to inspect its newly completed ventilator socket outlets, which the state government funded. 

The state government has paid RM1.3 million for the additional sockets. 

Hospitals are under the purview of the federal government and procurement of additional facilities, equipment and utilities will take time, even though they are for Covid-19 treatment. 

The state government had stepped in to speed things up in the hope that the federal government would reimburse it later. 

As the Chinese New Year celebrations draw nearer, Uggah reminded the people that the war against Covid-19 is not over yet.

“We have not won the war yet, as there are cases around,” Uggah said as he appealed for caution and continued compliance with the standard operating procedure. – January 26, 2022.