THE Health Ministry has designated 14 new Covid-19 hospitals in the country to deal with the increasing number of cases, especially for those patients who required immediate medical attention, said Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The Director-General of Health said the new hospitals were designated in eight states and the allocation involves a total of 539 beds.

“Recently we can see there is an increased number of cases.

“So, we need to increase the number of hospitals as well,” Noor Hisham said at a press conference in Putrajaya today.

The new hospitals in Johor are Sultan Ismail Hospital, Muar Hospital and Sultanah Nora Ismail Hospital.

In Kedah, Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital was made a Covid-19 hospital, while in Selangor, the Serdang Hospital and Selayang Hospital were roped into to be a Covid-19 hospital.

Pekan Hospital, Jengka Hospital and Muadzam Shah Hospital were added in the list of Covid-19 hospitals in Pahang, while in Terengganu Setiu Hopital was made a coronavirus hospital.

The other hospitals are Jeli Hospital (Kelantan), Limbang Hospital and Sarikei Hospital (both in Sarawak).

Noor Hisham said that the Kudat Hospital in Sabah was reactivated and made a Covid-19 treating hospital.

“These hospitals are to assist the Health Ministry to treat patients under Category 3, 4 and 5,” he said.

There are five categories of Covid-19 infections: 1 is positive cases with no symptoms, 2 is positive cases with mild symptoms, 3 is positive cases with pneumonia, 4 is pneumonia cases that require oxygen and 5 is for cases that require breathing assistance.

He said that in the second wave, there were only around two to three percent of cases under the 4th and 5th categories.

However, he said that the percentage of the cases under these two categories have spiked to 15% now.

“If we add category 3 into this, the total under these three categories would be around 20%.

“So, if there are 3,000 cases detected, 20% of it would make it 600 cases for admission,” the director-general said.

Noor Hisham said that those under category 1 and 2 would not be admitted to hospitals. Instead, they would be sent to Covid-19 Quarantine and Low Risk Treatment Centres (PKRC).

However, he said that those in category 1 and 2 who are in a risky situation would still be admitted in hospital. – January 19, 2021.