SARAWAK is preparing for the worst-case scenario in the Covid-19 pandemic after a spike of 15 new infections today, Deputy Chief Minister Douglas Uggah said.

The state has had talks with four private hospitals in Kuching – the Normah Medical Specialist Centre (NMSC) in Petra Jaya, Timberland Medical Centre, KPJ Kuching Specialist Centre and Borneo Medical Centre (BMC) – to discuss taking in non-Covid-19 patients from Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) if it faces a shortage of beds.

“You never know. If you look at some other countries, the requirement (for beds) can be quite substantial,” Uggah said in his daily news conference on the pandemic today.

“We are preparing for the worst.”

Sarawak has designated four government hospitals in the state as dedicated Covid-19 treatment centres.

They are the 1,003-bed SGH in Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri hospitals.

Uggah, who chairs the state Disaster Management Committee, said if SGH runs out of the beds due to an increase in the number of Covid-19 patients, the present arrangement is to send non-Covid-19 patients to the SGH Heart Centre in Samarahan and smaller district hospitals in Serian (63km from Kuching) and Bau (30km from Kuching).

“But if all these three hospitals are not sufficient, then the private hospitals will have to make their beds available for non-Covid-19 patients.

“Our policy is to ensure these patients still get the best medical care and treatment.”

On who will foot the bill for the stay at private hospitals, Uggah said: “If need be, the state government will pay.”

Uggah said with Sarawak only having 110 Covid-19 positive cases as of today, SGH was still coping.

Not all who have tested positive are being warded at SGH, he added.

Asymptomatic cases have been sent to a multipurpose youth centre down the road from the hospital to be kept in isolation.

On the sudden spike in cases today after registering only four yesterday and four on Wednesday, Uggah said this is due to the large number of persons under investigation (PUIs) still awaiting test results.

Yesterday, the number of PUIs waiting for their results was 64.

Today, the number shrunk to 32.

“The results can go either way. We’re still in an unpredictable scenario, even though yesterday, it looked very encouraging.”

Of the 15 new positive cases detected today, nine are men and six are women.

All have been admitted to SGH. – March 27, 2020.