NINETY-eight percent of the 57,355 elective surgeries in the backlog at government hospitals nationwide was cleared at the end of last month, Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today. 

The backlog, which Hisham said was one of the immediate consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, was due to the postponements over the last two years as hospitals closed operation theatres (OTs) and freed up more beds for Covid-19 cases.