PRIVATE hospitals in the country have started treating Covid-19 patients as cases continue to escalate, said Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The Health Director-General said according to the ministry’s data, 86 patients are currently seeking treatment at private healthcare centres across the country.

He said 24 of these patients are in intensive care units (ICUs) and seven require ventilator support.

“In Johor, there are eight cases, two in ICU; Selangor – 48 cases (11 in ICU), Kuala Lumpur – 26 cases (11 in ICU) and in Perak there are 4 cases,” he said at a special Zoom briefing today.

Noor Hisham, however, said the cases were not referred to the private hospitals by the ministry but were self-admissions.

He said of the 210 private hospitals in the country, 129 have the capability to treat Covid-19 cases, and of which 100 have agreed to open their doors to treat coronavirus patients.

Noor Hisham said as of now, there are 1,349 hospital beds, 65 ICU beds and 64 ventilators available at the 100 hospitals.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, government hospitals have been exclusively treating Covid-19 patients.

Malaysia today reported 3,391 new cases, taking the number of active cases in the country to 48,751.

Government hospitals have been stretched thin with Malaysia reporting more than 3,000 cases daily in the past weeks.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced on January 17 that decanting patients to private hospitals will help reduce the pressure on public hospitals and the heavily burdened health workers. – February 5, 2021.