HOSPITALS across the country have been told to prepare for an exponential surge in Covid-19 cases with serious symptoms.

Director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah informed the state health department directors of this in a May 7 letter sighted by The Malaysian Insight.

In it, Noor Hisham gave several reasons for a likely increase in cases, namely, the high infectivity rate (r0) of 1.07 nationwide; the festive season; insufficient vaccination coverage; and high population density in some areas.

He said there could be more cases with categories 3, 4 and 5 symptoms, with groups such as the elderly and people with comorbidities being particularly at risk.

“Daily cases are still high and haven’t shown any signs of receding anytime soon,” he said.

He also cited worrying statistics on admissions to the intensive care unit, which have increased 44% over a span of two weeks. Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Kelantan and Sarawak are the states seeing a marked increase in patients needing critical care. 

The ICU bed occupancy rate has exceeded 70% in 22 public hospitals and up to 90% in some of them.

“A few non-Covid hospitals are being used to treat Covid-19 patients who require respiratory support because the patients could not be transferred to Covid-19 hospitals which are already packed,” Noor Hisham said.

“There are patients who are placed on ventilators even in normal wards. 

“Besides that, some hospitals are facing manpower issues as some of the staff are in quarantine which makes it difficult to increase the ICU capacity in their respective hospitals.”

Hospitals were told to take several measures to prepare for the potential rise in cases.

These include suspending all surgeries and elective procedures to free up beds, mobilising human resources for Covid-19 care, increasing bed allocation at hybrid hospitals from 21% to 50%, mobilising clinical and non-clinical staff within the hospital, and placing asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients under home surveillance.

“Hospitals and the state health departments must also repurpose spaces in wards and hospitals into ICU wards and the number of beds in Covid-19 hospitals.”

There are currently 482 repurposed ICUs at public health facilities.

New staff will have to be given rapid training, quarantine centres will have to be open while efforts will be stepped up to commandeer teaching and military hospitals for Covid-19 care, he said.

The Malaysian Insight has reached out to Noor Hisham for comment on the letter which is making the rounds online. – May 8, 2021.